A right-wing political consultant with deep ties to US and Latin American politics has been jailed over a street shooting of his pregnant partner, cracking open a network of paid disinformation across the region.

• Fernando Cerimedo, business partner of former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, was arrested after two men dressed as delivery workers shot his girlfriend, who survived.
• From her hospital bed she described bribes, violence, and $800,000 a month flowing from Argentina's Javier Milei operation; leaked texts allegedly discussed getting rid of her.
• Cerimedo helped install right-wing leaders in Argentina and Bolivia by importing US-style attack campaigns and running huge bot farms on social media.
• Colombia's president says 500,000 bots pushed lies about him in that country's election, and Mexico is now debating whether foreign interference should void a vote.
• Parscale himself has drifted from Trump's circle and now works mostly on contracts for Israel, which has its own reasons to want influence in Latin America.

Outlook: The scandal strips the anti-corruption halo from the region's right-wing wave and may push more countries to treat foreign online meddling as an election-annulling offense.