Leaked Cerimedo Audios: He Talks About Sheinbaum and Calls Negre ‘a Mercenary, Worse Than Me’

BySinEmbargo

This article by the SinEmbargo editorial staff originally appeared in the September 10, 2026 edition of SinEmbargo, an independent Mexican digital news outlet.

Mexico City, September 10 (SinEmbargo).— “A real mercenary, worse than me” — that is how Argentine consultant Fernando Cerimedo described his former partner at La Derecha Diario, the Spaniard Javier Negre, during a conversation with his ex-partner, Nadia Beller, that was leaked on Wednesday by the newspaper Clarín.

In the recording, Cerimedo explains the reasons that led him to sell his stake in the conservative outlet and cut ties with the project — among them, that keeping up that commercial and media relationship was causing him more and more complications.

The fallout from that link reached even Mexican politics: in the audio, the political adviser cites the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, as an example of the problems his continued involvement in the outlet was causing.

“On top of that it brings me problems: the President of Mexico, Sheinbaum, who is at odds with Javier Negre, sometimes calls me out in the morning as if I were organizing campaigns against her,” the consultant is heard saying in the audio released by Clarín.

Beller replies to her ex that he always ends up “paying the price for everything the other one publishes.” The consultant agrees and insists that the partnership with Negre was already unsustainable. “The other guy is fierce, he’s a mercenary, really. He’s worse than me, you know,” Cerimedo states.

Fernando Cerimedo
The Argentine said in a conversation with Nadia Beller that Javier Negre was “a real mercenary.” Photo: Fernando Cerimedo / Facebook.

He’s a mercenary, really. He’s worse than me.

Fernando Cerimedo, on Javier Negre

On this latest information about the owners of La Derecha Diario, President Sheinbaum Pardo said today that although she has not listened to the audio, the platform’s goal is to destabilize democratic processes and promote the right — as its name says — through very murky mechanisms, and that one of its targets was already Mexico.

“I haven’t listened to the audio. I would have to listen to it to give a fuller opinion, to know exactly what the audio says and be able to form an opinion on it,” she said at her morning press conference.

Nevertheless, Sheinbaum recalled that the far-right outlet was created to influence elections in various Latin American countries through resources aimed at spreading fake news and attacks on social media.

“What’s relevant here? They themselves call it La Derecha Diario [The Daily Right]. And by people — one of them now detained for the attempted femicide of his wife, it seems. And from there have come the ties they even have with some companies in the United States,” she maintained.

Claudia Sheinbaum at her press conference
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said she will listen to the new audio before giving an opinion on its content. Photo: Presidency.

It’s a right-wing newspaper that promotes right-wing figures through rather murky mechanisms.

President Claudia Sheinbaum

Cerimedo Explains Why He Sold His Stake

According to the report by Clarín, Cerimedo sold Negre the 50 percent he held in the company linked to La Derecha Diario and ceased to be a shareholder of the portal while he was detained in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.

In the conversation, the consultant maintains that there was a problem involving his then-wife, Natalia Basil, since — as they were not divorced — he considered that the shares could become part of the division of assets.

Cerimedo also mentions a person identified as “Nelson,” whom he links to the friction with Negre and Juan Pablo Carreira, the current director of Digital Communication of the Argentine Presidency.

But the consultant raises another reason for leaving the partnership: staying inside La Derecha Diario meant continuing to appear publicly tied to Negre’s publications.

“So I prefer to step away from the media side. If I leave it, I’m out,” he says in the conversation. “It’s not worth it; financially it brings in very little money a year,” he adds.

According to Clarín, the audios were recorded on July 23, about 20 days before the shooting Beller suffered on the steps of a hotel in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The lawyer handed the recordings over to the Argentine newspaper.

The audio came to light just as Beller was called to testify in Argentina in the ANDIS case, after having publicly stated that she has relevant information for the file.

Sheinbaum Had Already Flagged Cerimedo

The mention of Sheinbaum stems from the Mexican leader’s remarks about the ties among Cerimedo, Negre, and the conservative portal. At the end of August, the head of the Executive revealed that Cerimedo was still a shareholder of the outlet when he was detained in Bolivia, and recalled that Negre had publicly acknowledged the Argentine as his partner.

Nadia Beller
Fernando Cerimedo’s ex-partner was summoned to expand her testimony over an attack against her. Photo: Nadia Beller / Facebook.

At that press conference she also noted that La Derecha Diario had been founded by Cerimedo and Negre, and accused the portal of using paid accounts and bots to simulate public opinion on social media.

Days later, on September 8, the President of Mexico suggested that Congress investigate whether Cerimedo and his network had influenced the country’s public opinion through social media.

La Derecha Diario and Its Digital Operation

When La Derecha Diario was founded, the owning company was Madero Media Group. Basil appeared as the main shareholder, with 85 percent; Tomás Beltrame held 10 percent; while Ezequiel Acuña and Juan Pablo Carreira each held 2.5 percent.

However, journalistic investigations into the portal’s origin and operation prove Cerimedo’s role in its creation and running. According to an investigation published by SinEmbargo, the Argentine consultant has owned the La Derecha Diario domain since 2018 and developed the project together with Basil.

The same work noted that, by 2025, the portal had a presence not only in Argentina but also in Mexico, Bolivia, the United States, Colombia, Israel, Ecuador, Honduras, and Uruguay, among other countries.

In that web, Negre took over the direction of the far-right portal and expanded the project’s presence outside Argentina. His arrival in Mexico coincided with a digital offensive against the government of President Sheinbaum.

The Investigations Into the Network

SinEmbargo documented in November 2025 that La Derecha Diario had spread false content and violent messages against Sheinbaum during the mobilizations identified with the so-called Generation Z. The investigation also placed the portal within a communication structure linked to businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego.

That investigation even recovered a statement by Cerimedo before the content verifiers who produced the special report Mercenarios Digitales [Digital Mercenaries]. The consultant acknowledged then that La Derecha Diario had used fake accounts or trolls to inflate trends on social media, though he denied they were used to attack rivals and maintained they were employed to manipulate algorithms.

La Derecha Diario ties
La Derecha Diario maintains ties with figures of the Mexican right and of other countries. Photo: @cerimedofernando / Instagram.

The SinEmbargo Data Unit also documented, during the protests of November 15, 2025, that La Derecha Diario spread baseless accusations against Sheinbaum, among them claims linking her to drug trafficking or asserting that she had ordered protesters to be repressed.

The portal has also appeared in other investigations into the coordinated circulation of narratives against the President. In April 2026, SinEmbargo documented how far-right accounts, among them La Derecha Diario, amplified messages seeking to blame former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and President Sheinbaum for the attack that occurred in Teotihuacán.

In another investigation, SinEmbargo detected that the platform had gained relevance within Salinas Pliego’s political project and documented the businessman’s ties with Negre and other figures of the Mexican and foreign right.

In Mexico, the topic grew because the portal attacked the President of Mexico harshly. In fact, the federal leader herself had already denounced the Cerimedo and Negre network before Clarín brought the audio to light.