The Man Behind the Rejection: Fernando Cerimedo Admits His Role in the Campaign Against Chile’s New Constitution and Use of Trolls to Influence Public Opinion

Original article: El operador detrás del Rechazo: Cerimedo reconoció su rol en campaña contra la nueva Constitución y uso de trolls para influir en Chile

The recent arrest in Bolivia of political operator Fernando Cerimedo, a prominent figure in Latin America’s far-right movements, who is facing charges for attempted femicide against his ex-partner Nadia Beller, has reignited controversy over his connections to Chile, specifically regarding his involvement in the campaign against a new Constitution and the use of fake accounts and trolls to manipulate algorithms, promote content, and shape public opinion in the country.

«Last year, I was traveling constantly because I was working on the campaign against the proposal for the new Constitution in Chile,» the Argentine consultant declared in May 2023 to Infobae. He is known for orchestrating various smear campaigns and spreading fake news on social media and is a co-founder and shareholder of La Derecha Diario, which has portals in Argentina, Mexico, the United States, Israel, Uruguay, and Ecuador.

This key outlet in libertarian communication is edited by Madero Media Group SRL, which is tied to Numen Publicidad, the company where Cerimedo serves as CEO.

The first mention of him and his firm Numen in Chile came on September 6, 2020, when El Mercurio published a poll from his firm that contradicted all existing surveys about the constitutional plebiscite: «Survey indicates tightening differences between Approval and Rejection.»

The results were startling: Numen recorded 42.3% for Approval, while other surveys showed over 70%. The company claimed to have conducted over 18,000 online surveys, an enormous number for the Chilean market.

Fernando Cerimedo later admitted on Radio Duna that the clients behind the survey were pro-Rejection businessmen. The survey, which would later prove catastrophically incorrect, as Approval won with 78%, was utilized in an attempt to sway the electoral mood.

«It’s hard to pinpoint where the error was,» said businessman Gerardo Jofré from the Rejection campaign at that time. «The error was that we analyzed and projected the data based on mandatory voting, assuming full voter turnout,» Cerimedo justified in La Tercera, conveniently overlooking that voting was voluntary and a 100% turnout was impossible.

When questioned by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) for the report «Digital Mercenaries,» Cerimedo described the incident as a «sample error. Serious, but just an error.»

However, his methodology goes beyond mere mistakes. In an interview with La Nación of Argentina, he acknowledged having “thousands” of trolls, generated “with machines, using artificial intelligence. We have operators who provide the instructions and variables to create them, and then we wait three to four months so that the algorithm, when scanning the network, doesn’t catch them.

In Chile, his troll operation focused on the 2022 exit plebiscite. Amid a campaign rife with fake news, his local partner, conservative lawyer Enrique José García Arancibia, emerged as the legal face of Numen SpA in Chile. Cerimedo celebrated the Rejection victory on the streets of Santiago in a video by Mdz titled, «The Crucial Role of an Argentine in the Rejection Campaign.»

One of the most emblematic projects was «Constitutional Facilitators,» a website and pamphlet that used official Convention graphics to spread false information, such as claiming that the new Constitution would mean “The end of home ownership.”

A Twitter user discovered that Cerimedo was behind the domain registration. He initially denied it: «false. We resell hosting and support. Creating it is another matter. That is indeed fake news,» he tweeted. However, in a conversation with CLIP, he acknowledged a connection: «We created a group called Constitutional Facilitators, which responded to people’s questions.»

Cerimedo and His Bot Farm

The discovery of a “mini bot farm” during a raid at a residence in an exclusive community in La Paz, allegedly occupied by Cerimedo, once again brought scrutiny to the Argentine consultant’s history of managing false accounts and mass content positioning strategies on social media.

Nevertheless, the advisor to far-right figures such as Javier Milei in Argentina, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia, and Nasry Asfura in Honduras, admitted in the aforementioned May 2023 interview with Infobae that he managed around 50,000 artificially created accounts just for Australia, alongside additional accounts used in Chile.

«We are near 50,000 just for Argentina. We also have accounts for Chile, which we use to generate content and relevance in conversations on specific topics,» he asserted at that time.

«We create accounts with artificial intelligence that possess a certain volume and credibility, to then utilize them in a defined strategy, with different content that can exert influence,» he indicated.

According to the political operator, these accounts are used to monitor conversations, generate content, and boost the relevance of certain issues, ensuring that algorithms on platforms like X, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok grant them greater exposure.

«During 2020, with the inclusion of TikTok, the algorithms of social networks changed completely. Now, a like, retweet, or comment is not what matters; what really counts is the quality of the account making the tweet or post. They need to be as close to real users as possible. We automate execution processes, but we create the accounts manually. They must be real, have a profile, and then social networks grant them relevance,» he mentioned.

When referring to the size of a farm, he suggested it could comprise 1,000 to 2,000 accounts, depending on how long they remained active before platforms detected them as fake.

A Portal with Content for the Right

In the interview with Infobae, he revealed that his monthly consulting fees range from USD 50,000 to USD 100,000 and stated that his company Grupo Numen is focused on corporate clients and politicians, consisting of other firms: Madero Media Group, digital media outlets, Madero Radio, and the sites Madero News and La Derecha Diario, which exclusively cater to a right-wing audience. He acknowledged seeking to position content in Chile to influence public opinion.

«Often, we want to disseminate news, both corporate and political. And since there isn’t always space in the media, we publish it on our own sites and channels. We have corporate clients in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and the United States,» he asserted.

Featured photo: Luciano González (Infobae)