President Javier Milei's external consultant and former head of his digital presidential campaign,
Fernando Cerimedo
, was accused by a judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court of
integrating a "criminal organization", with "acting nuclei and digital militias"
in the attempt to coup d'état led by former president Jair Bolsonaro after the October 2022 elections, where he lost by a narrow margin with Lula da Silva.
In a 135-page document, which was released this week, Judge Alexandre de Moraes accused more than 30 people, including Bolsonaro, of planning and executing a coup d'état, for which he organized six working groups.
One of them was made up of nine people, called
"Nucleus of Disinformation and Attacks on the Electoral System", where he mentioned Cerimedo,
an Argentine businessman very close to the Bolsonaro family, who also owns several companies in Argentina, including
"La Derecha Diario ", a reference medium by Javier Milei.
In fact, one of the former president's sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, traveled to Argentina at the end of last year -accompanied by Cerimedo- to meet with Milei.
The six work teams mentioned by the Brazilian Justice Department developed a plan to guarantee that Jair Bolsonaro remained in power illegally.
With that objective they worked to "discredit the electoral process", plan and execute "a coup d'état" and the "abolition of the Democratic State of Law", maintained the opinion of the judge of the highest court to which
Clarín
had access , which ruled on Thursday after
the arrest of four people, dozens of raids and the seizure of Bolsonaro's passport,
so that he cannot leave the country.
The group in which the Brazilian Justice included the Argentine expert in political marketing was in charge of
"producing, disseminating and amplifying false news
regarding the 2022 presidential elections with the aim of stimulating followers (of Bolsonaro) to remain in opposition." of the barracks and facilities of the Armed Forces", with "the purpose" of creating "an environment conducive to the execution of a coup d'état".
Judge De Moraes maintained that "the core of misinformation and attacks on the electoral system was made up of
Anderson Torres, Ángelo Martins Denicoli,
Fernando Cerimedo
" and six other people.
Anderson Torres
was Bolsonaro's Minister of Justice, he was imprisoned for attacks against the democratic system and is now on parole, with an electronic anklet.
Jair Bolsonaro was in Buenos Aires for the inauguration of Javier Milei as president, in December.
photo: Juano Tesone, Clarín
"Digital militias"
The judge of the highest court assured that this "disinformation core" used "digital militias."
And he gave as an example of
"such an illicit and undemocratic strategy" a Cerimedo video
that was seen live on the Internet by hundreds of thousands of people, with "fraudulent news" about the Brazilian electoral system.
"As the police authority points out, Cerimedo used the same false arguments created by hackers, cited in the conversation held" among other members of these groups that destabilize democracy, stated the judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court of Justice.
And he added that the existence of "a relationship" was proven between the Brazilian army reserve soldier "Angelo Martins Denicoli and Fernando Cerimedo, in the sense of
disseminating disinformation about the Brazilian electoral process."
"A relationship between Fernando Cerimedo, Angelo Martins Denicoli and Eder Balbino is duly proven, in
a dynamic of division of tasks
established for that purpose," concluded the judge of the highest Brazilian court.
After the events that occurred in Brazil,
Cerimedo took charge of part of the digital strategy of Milei's presidential campaign,
who questioned the results of the PASO and the first electoral round, ensuring that "there were irregularities" that caused him to be loss of five points in those presidential elections, calling into question the functioning of the Argentine electoral system.
Last week, Brazil's Federal Police carried out an operation against former Bolsonaro officials accused of the coup plot.
Photo: AFP
Cerimedo's response
In dialogue with
Clarín
, Cerimedo assured that the accusation of the Brazilian Justice against him
"has already been filed"
and that he was included in the judicial document for some videos he recorded criticizing the operation of the Brazilian electoral system, despite the fact that there are "other videos where I said not to go to the Capitol, not to cut off routes. But they mention all those who supported Bolsonaro, there is a terrible persecution," because
"Justice in Brazil is a disaster."
"I am not accused of the attempted" coup d'état, "which furthermore there was no attempt. My part is already filed, but they imprisoned the president of Bolsonaro's party and others. But they
say that with the information that I disclosed "they incited" the militants
to attempt a coup d'état, Cerimedo assured
Clarín
.
On social networks he expanded that concept and stated that "they are persecuting opponents, and you celebrate it," he told an X user (exTwitter).
"The worst thing is that they think it affects me. On the contrary, I am proud to have exposed the fraud of the left in Brazil, if the same left that sent 30 of its marketers and millions of dollars to Massa's campaign and they lost.
The dictatorship Brazil's judicial system is going to fall,
and you are not coming back," said Cerimedo, in response to an X user.