MIAMI (RTW News) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified Tuesday regarding his connections with former congressman David Rivera, who is currently on trial for accusations of secretly lobbying on behalf of Venezuela's government nearly a decade ago.
Rivera, together with an accomplice, was charged in 2022 with money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent after securing a $50 million lobbying contract from Nicolás Maduro’s administration.
During his testimony, Rubio emphasized his close ties with Rivera during their shared tenure in the Florida Legislature, where they worked together for six years.
Prosecutors allege that Rivera and his partner attempted to arrange high-level meetings for Delcy Rodríguez — currently Venezuela’s acting president — in cities including Dallas, New York, Washington, D.C., and Caracas, aiming to influence U.S. officials and corporate leaders.
To obscure their activities, it is claimed that the defendants established a chat group dubbed MIA (Miami), utilizing code names such as “Little Cuban” for Rubio and “The Lady in Red” for Rodríguez.
The goal of the lobbying effort was allegedly to persuade Donald Trump’s administration to normalize relations with Maduro’s government, a pursuit deemed unlikely during the earlier Trump years but possibly actionable now following a shift in Venezuela's political landscape.
“This case is about two things: greed and betrayal,” said prosecutor Roger Cruz, asserting that for $50 million, Rivera and his counterpart agreed to lobby clandestinely for Maduro.
Rivera, aged 60, argues that his firm, Interamerican Consulting, was contracted by an American subsidiary, not Venezuela’s regime directly, hence he did not require foreign agent registration. His attorney has stated that the contract focused solely on revitalizing business with Exxon in Venezuela, an effort exempt from the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Rubio's appearance in court is particularly noteworthy, as it's been decades since a serving U.S. Cabinet member provided testimony in a criminal trial, with the last instance in 1983 involving Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan at a Mafia trial.
