Fernando Cerimedo’s International Network Includes the PRI and Sí por México
This article by Aníbal García Fernández originally appeared in the October 3, 2026 edition of Contralínea, a Mexican investigative journalism magazine.
The downfall of Fernando Cerimedo—prosecuted in Bolivia for crimes related to attempted femicide and money laundering—has led to the destabilization of some interventionist strategies promoted by United States agencies. The international network of the main partner of Javier Negre, in La Derecha Diario, is linked to Mexico through the PRI, through the structure of Sí Por México—promoted by businessman Claudio X González and former right-wing candidate Xochitl Gálvez—and through Alonso Cedeño. The latter shares spaces with Dick Morris, one of the creators of the biggest smear campaign against López Obrador: the “danger to Mexico” campaign
The case of Fernando Cerimedo—co-owner with Javier Negre of La Derecha Diario—shows the new forms taken by destabilization sponsored by United States agencies, and the relationships among the Latin American right. Its epicenter is in Miami, and it connects with Latin America.
This international network, woven by the former adviser to the presidents of Argentina, Javier Milei, and Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, reaches the structure of the Mexican electoral right, through connections with the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the political platform Sí por México, sponsored by businessman Claudio X González Guajardo—shareholder of the transnational paper company Kimberly Clark—and which connects to former presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez.
Criminally prosecuted in Bolivia for the attempted femicide of his former partner Nadia Beller and on matters of alleged money laundering, Fernando Cerimedo heads an international political and media network dedicated to destabilizing governments, in coordination with interventionist strategies promoted by United States agencies.
La Derecha Diario represents just one of its phalanxes. In the Mexican case, it is linked to the PRI leadership and the structure of Sí Por México; it also reaches Alonso Cedeño, who shares spaces with Dick Morris, one of the creators of one of the biggest smear campaigns against Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in the context of the 2006 election.
Dick Morris was the mind behind the slogan “López Obrador is a danger to Mexico,” together with the Spaniard Antonio Solá and Maximiliano Cortázar. Today, this figure who did so much harm to Mexico is part of that Cerimedo network, which extends to Xochitl Gálvez, Sí por México and Claudio X González.
The link between Fernando Cerimedo, Dick Morris and Claudio X González is Alonso Ernesto Cedeño Gutiérrez, someone who took part in the school that Dick Morris formed together with Cerimedo and Andrés “Andy” Rivas, who is an adviser to the president of Paraguay and representative of the University of Florida in Uruguay, through the Adam Smith Institute.
Dick Morris, who was also an adviser to Bill Clinton, founded the Dick Morris Academy in 2025, where several political advisers teach courses. Among them are Luis Rosales, Ángel Beccassimo, Andy Rivas, Fernando Cerimedo and the Mexican Alonso Cedeño.
The link with Alonso Cedeño connects, in turn, with the PRIAN’s former presidential candidate, Xochitl Gálvez, and the Sí por México platform. Proof of this is a legal proceeding opened in 2021 before the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary, brought against Alonso Cedeño.
Case file SRE-PSC-191/2021[1] was filed by the Morena party, which denounced the dissemination of content related to the recall process, published on Sí Por México’s social media, where they called on people not to take part in that vote. What matters about this document is that it exposes that the person responsible for Sí por México’s posts was Cedeño, who shares spaces with Dick Morris, Fernando Cerimedo and Andy Rivas.
As for the connection with the Institutional Revolutionary Party, it comes through Cedeño, who has been invited on several occasions to teach courses at the Reyes Heroles Institute. Led by Alejandro Moreno, the PRI remains an open opponent of the fourth transformation and even openly promotes foreign interventionism, especially by the United States: Alito Moreno constantly travels to the neighboring country to the north and opens the doors of the Senate to Larry Rubin, so that he can promote a pro-US agenda, as happened recently with the debate on the dual nationality reforms for candidacies.
In addition, Cerimedo’s network of friends, especially through Dick Morris and Andy Rivas, keeps close to other political actors of the PRIAN: Rivas is director of the Adam Smith Center in Uruguay, an extension of the right in Miami, since it is an appendage of Florida International University.
This last institution has invited right-wing politicians as speakers, such as former Mexican president Felipe Calderón; but also Juan Guaidó, Álvaro Uribe, Iván Duque and Mauricio Macri.
In that connection with the international and Cuban right, Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, Mauricio Tabe and Jorge Romero, of the National Action Party, recently attended the Miami 2026 Mayors Summit.
Damián Merlo, LAAG and Milei
Investigations by the Media Observatory of Cubadebate and by Argentine media have mapped part of Fernando Cerimedo’s international structure, and reveal how the ultra-right networks operate in Miami, capital of the Latin American right.
As Cubadebate highlighted, in 2023 the link became explicit between Fernando Cerimedo as CEO of the lobbying firm Numen and the firm of his partner Damián Merlo, managing partner of Latin America Advisory Group (LAAG). The link, moreover, involved a contract to collaborate with the campaign of Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, who in 2024 traveled to Miami to be recognized as “international ambassador of light.”
The propaganda plan in favor of Milei consisted of “preparing op-eds, connecting members of the House and the Senate,” and outreach to think tanks such as Heritage, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Council on Foreign Relations and the Atlantic Council.
As an example, in 2024 Milei visited the Council on Foreign Relations in the midst of the UN General Assembly. At the CFR he gave a closed-door talk. He also held his third meeting with Elon Musk, visited Wall Street, and met with Ursula von der Leyen and Daniel Noboa.
In 2025, Milei received the Global Citizen Award 2025 from the hand of the Treasury secretary at a gala dinner of the Atlantic Council. That same year, Milei received at the Casa Rosada Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation; its head of Latin America, Andrés Martínez Fernández; the head of the Index of Economic Freedom, Buhm Jung KIM; and the foundation’s chief of staff, Ryan Neuhaus.
In the midst of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in Washington in 2026, Argentina’s ambassador Alec Oxenford took part in a meeting between Meta and CSIS on artificial intelligence, an element that generates controversy in Argentina.
Damian Merlo and Bukele
But it was not only Milei: the Latin American right saw in Cerimedo and Merlo two people who could open the doors of US elite circles for them. In the case of Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, a so-called outsider, also of the right, he paid Merlo’s firm more than 2.5 million dollars between 2021 and 2025. And for 2026 a contract was signed for 780 thousand dollars to be paid in monthly installments.
According to US government data, the Compañía de Luz Eléctrica de Ahuachapán SA is the one that signed the contract with LAAG.
According to the documents, the government of Nayib Bukele, characterized by violating human rights through the Territorial Control Plan, designed by the Venezuelan Santiago Rosas of Lab-Co (Collaborative Public Policy Solutions Laboratory), paid for the services of Fernando Cerimedo’s partner—investigated for the attempted femicide of his wife, for links to drug trafficking—Merlo, to maintain and strengthen strategic ties with entities of the US Executive Branch and Congress; identify opportunities for bilateral collaboration and facilitate direct communication channels between El Salvador and relevant political actors in the US; support the organization of official visits, bilateral meetings and other dealings in the United States; design and implement communication strategies to position key narratives of the Salvadoran government before international media; serve as liaison between El Salvador and global journalists, editors and media outlets; provide strategic guidance on interviews, press releases and public positions of the government before international audiences.
Graph 1. El Salvador’s Funding to LAAG
Grenada and CARICOM
In 2026, Merlo’s LAAG also received funding from the government of Grenada for six months, between March and August 2026, for 35 thousand dollars. The contract was signed by Grenada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Andall and Damian Merlo.
The objectives of the agreement included highlighting Grenada’s role in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Also strengthening bilateral relations: improving cooperation in trade, security and economic development between Grenada and the United States; articulating Grenada’s positions: clearly conveying the priorities of Grenada’s foreign policy, including its commitment to peaceful regional relations and non-interference in geopolitical rivalries; media engagement: developing and disseminating favorable narratives through media-targeted communication to generate public support and counter disinformation.
Andrés “Andy” Rivas and Miami
As the Argentine press detailed regarding the Cerimedo case, another relevant member of the right-wing network linked to the adviser of Rodrigo Paz, president of Bolivia, is Andrés “Andy” Rivas, who is an adviser to the president of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, and, according to the Paraguayan outlet ABC Color, is the “shadow adviser” of Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano.
Rivas won the 2019 Napolitan Victory Award for the campaign of then Paraguayan deputy Hugo Ramírez in Asunción, was a Fulbright fellow, and passed through Germany’s right-wing Naumann Foundation, the Taipei Economic Office and Spain’s FAES Foundation, where figures of the right such as José María Aznar, Cayetana Álvarez and Guillermo Lasso (former president of Ecuador) are found.
As an adviser, Andy Rivas brought the Paraguayan president closer to the circle of US congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, an open opponent of the transformation process in Mexico, the Cuban revolution and other progressive processes. In addition, the link with media outlets such as Infobae is also shown in a 2024 meeting. That year, Daniel Hadad, owner of this media outlet, attended the gala of the Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom of Florida International University.
DMM and MAGA
Between 2021 and 2022, the firm where Damian Merlo worked, DMM Consulting, appeared as a vendor of the Honor Bound PAC, associated with the financing network of Donald Trump’s campaign. DMM Consulting received 607,552 dollars.
That is why, when Cerimedo’s former partner, whom he ordered killed while she was pregnant, publishes photos with Trump’s son, Dick Morris, Cerimedo and Andy Rivas, it is important to consider that the channels of Latin American politics now pass through those of the United States, Miami and Trump.
[1] https://www.te.gob.mx/sentenciasHTML/convertir/expediente/SRE-PSC-0191-2021-
[3] https://www.opensecrets.org/campaign-expenditures/vendor?cycle=2024&vendor=DMM+Consulting
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