Chile’s Election Bots Probe Widens Around Jailed Argentine Consultant
CHILE · POLITICS
Key Facts
- The country Chile, where José Antonio Kast won the 2025 presidential election. The opposition wants to know whether fake online accounts shaped that race and earlier votes.
- Why it matters Fernando Cerimedo, an Argentine digital consultant known as the “king of the trolls”, has been held in Bolivia since August. Deputies want to know how far his methods reached into Chile.
- What happened On Wednesday 23 September, Chile’s electoral service said his firm Numen billed 25.77 million pesos (about US$26,800) to three 2021 candidates. Cerimedo himself appears in no filing.
- The numbers An El Mostrador analysis estimates at least 1,300 bot-like accounts amplified three prominent troll accounts on X during the 2025 campaign.
- What it means for you Chilean law does not treat election bots or disinformation as offences. Trending political topics in Chile deserve caution until rules catch up.
- Still open Who ran the accounts, whether any campaign paid for them, and whether a Santiago prosecutor finds a crime. Kast denies working with Cerimedo.
Chile’s argument over election bots has moved from rumour to paperwork. Servel, the national electoral service, told deputies that three 2021 candidates paid a company tied to Argentine consultant Fernando Cerimedo.
Cerimedo is in pre-trial detention in Chonchocoro prison near La Paz, Bolivian media reported. He is accused of attempted femicide against his former partner, lawyer Nadia Beller.
He also faces an illicit enrichment case, El País and The Clinic reported. Rio Times covered his arrest in Bolivia Jails Fernando Cerimedo, the Consultant Linking Paz to Milei, Bolsonaro and Trumpworld.
What the electoral service found
Servel’s 22-page reply, dated 23 September and seen by The Clinic, says Cerimedo appears in no campaign filing from 2020 to 2025. His Chilean company, Numen SpA, does.
The three ran for the 2021 Constitutional Convention, the elected body that drafted a later-rejected constitution. They paid Numen 25.77 million pesos (about US$26,800), The Clinic and El Desconcierto reported.
Former education minister Mariana Aylwin paid about 15.6 million pesos (about US$16,300). Tomás Recart and María de los Ángeles López, then a Republican Party candidate, paid the rest.
Socialist deputy Juan Santana demanded that Aylwin explain the services, because part of the spending was refunded with public money. Aylwin told The Clinic that Numen “operated as an advertising agency” and that she had “never run a campaign that discredits anyone”.
A legal gap on election bots
Servel said current law does not classify disinformation or automated accounts as electoral offences. It also cannot trace digital services bought abroad, The Clinic reported.
Since 2021 it has received 321 complaints about disinformation, fake accounts or digital manipulation. It archived 269, according to The Clinic and El Ciudadano.
Counting the bots
El Mostrador and social-listening analysts studied 92,296 interactions with three well-known troll accounts on X during 2025. About 7 percent of the 18,517 accounts examined looked like bots or fake profiles.
From that, the analysts estimate at least 1,300 bots reposted and commented in coordination. The published summary does not say who operated them.
Beller told Radio Bío Bío in August that Cerimedo “said he had made a new president”. Kast admits knowing him but denies he worked on his campaigns, El País reported.
Background: Chile: Kast Refuses to Withdraw Security Reform, Cuts Ties With ‘King of the Trolls’.
On Sunday El Ciudadano relayed a report by HispanTV, Iran’s Spanish-language state channel, casting the affair as US interference. It offered commentators’ views, not new evidence.
What Is Not Yet Known
In early September, a Santiago regional prosecutor’s office opened an inquiry into possible computer crimes linked to Cerimedo, ADN Radio reported. It has announced no charges.
A special investigative committee of the Chamber of Deputies, approved on 2 September by 69 votes to 43, has not yet reported. Nobody has shown who paid for the bot-like accounts.
More: Chile news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Chile’s electoral service find?
It traced 25.77 million pesos (about US$26,800) in 2021 campaign payments to Numen, the firm of jailed Argentine consultant Fernando Cerimedo.
Who is Fernando Cerimedo?
An Argentine digital consultant known as the king of the trolls, held in Bolivia since August; he himself appears in no Chilean filing.
How many election bots were active in Chile?
An El Mostrador analysis estimates at least 1,300 bot-like accounts amplified three prominent troll accounts on X during the 2025 campaign.
Are election bots illegal in Chile?
No. Chilean law does not treat election bots or disinformation as offences, so trending political topics deserve caution until rules catch up.
Sources: The Clinic, 24 Sep 2026; El Desconcierto, 24 Sep 2026; El Mostrador, 25 Sep 2026; El Ciudadano, 27 Sep 2026; El País, 2 Sep 2026; ADN Radio, 3 Sep 2026; Radio Bío Bío, 28 Aug 2026.
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