Marco Rubio. Cartoon by Adán Iglesias Toledo.
Once again, the pathological liar Marco Rubio lies. This time, before a Miami court that is trying his close friend and former congressman, David Rivera.
A report from the Spanish news agency EFE, published by El Nuevo Herald, stated that Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed in a Miami court that he was unaware of an alleged multimillion-dollar contract that his close friend David Rivera supposedly made in 2017 to bring the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro closer to the United States and facilitate a peaceful transfer of power.
Rubio appeared as a witness for the prosecution at Rivera’s hearing. Years ago, the two men bought a house in Tallahassee, Florida, and lived together when they were both state legislators.
Rivera, along with Esther Nuhfer (who worked for Rubio), is facing trial in South Florida on corruption charges for allegedly misappropriating millions of dollars in a murky scheme to influence the U.S. administration to ease sanctions against the Maduro government during Donald Trump’s first term (2017-2021), when Rubio was a senator in Washington.
For approximately three hours, the current Secretary of State was questioned by both the prosecution and the lawyers for Rivera and Nuhfer. He maintained that he was unaware that Rivera had a $50 million consulting contract with a U.S. subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company, for the aforementioned purposes.
However, according to the EFE report, Rubio acknowledged that in July 2017, he held two meetings with Rivera in which the former legislator presented him with a plan that, through businessman Raúl Gorrín—owner of Globovisión and alleged intermediary with the Maduro government—sought to deliver a letter from the then-Venezuelan president to Trump proposing the start of a peaceful transition process.
Rubio said that the second meeting, which Gorrín attended at a Washington hotel, was “a waste of time” because there was no letter of commitment from Maduro, which he was supposedly going to deliver to Trump.
Rivera has faced countless trials on charges of corruption, money laundering, and illicit dealings, but in the end, as is always the case in Miami, he has been acquitted due to his connections with high-ranking political figures in Miami.
His close relationship with Rubio led him to buy a three-bedroom house in Tallahassee, which became a symbol of a politically problematic friendship.
The ties between Rubio and Rivera date back to 1992, when they volunteered for the campaign of Lincoln Díaz-Balart, who was running for a district in Miami-Dade County. This was during the heyday of the Cuban counterrevolutionary industry in Florida, and thanks to his connection with the Díaz-Balart brothers, Rivera was able to work for the Cuban Broadcasting Office (Radio Martí) and as a USAID contractor.
According to the South Florida program CódigoAbierto360°, by the time Marco Rubio was elected state representative, he and Esther Nuhfer were already known as the “Golden Duo.” Rivera, in particular, earned the nickname “The Executioner” for carrying out Rubio’s orders and also “David La Trampa” (David the Trap).
On March 29, 2025, Venezuela News reported that Alejandro Terán, director of the Latin American Association of Petroleum Entrepreneurs in Texas, claimed that, as a senator, Marco Rubio received corrupt money from the Simón Bolívar Foundation of CITGO, which was managed by Juan Guaidó. Terán also accused Rubio of lobbying for ExxonMobil.
Press reports from 2022 indicate that Rivera and Nuhfer were accused of using their access to the corrupt Florida senator and other elected officials to improve Venezuela’s standing with the United States.
Rivera signed a secret consulting contract with CITGO, the subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA USA, for $50 million. The federal indictment alleged that he received more than $13 million in return.
The indictment stated that Rivera and Nuhfer arranged two meetings with Rubio to discuss Venezuela. According to press reports, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) received information from a source at CITGO linking Marco Rubio and his friend, former Congressman Rivera, to acts of corruption associated with the corporation.
After The New York Times published information in May 2020 about CITGO’s lawsuit against David Rivera’s firm, Interamerican Consulting Inc., for breach of contract related to lobbying services, it became public knowledge that the FBI and the Department of Justice were investigating both men.
From October 2020 to April 2021, a whistleblower who requested to enter the federal witness protection program provided information via email to Christopher J. Woehr, Little Duane and Claudia Mulvey (FDLE) and George Stephan (Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigations for the Department of the Treasury) regarding irregular transaction amounts and alleged money laundering from CITGO, through Luisa Palacios (a member of its board of directors), to banks in Switzerland, Austria, Hong Kong, and Mexico, and to accounts belonging to David Rivera, Diana Rivera McKenzie (David’s sister), and Esther Nuhfer (linked to Rubio) at Chase Bank in Miami-Dade County.
Between 2017 and 2020, most of the transfers were made to bank accounts belonging to Viviana Bovo, who used her name to cover for her boss, Marco Rubio, then a highly influential Florida senator, who suffered a humiliating defeat to Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.
According to the IRS and Florida FDLE source, Rubio had agreed with Rivera to lobby to obstruct a Justice Department investigation into CITGO for potential violations, including money laundering, mail fraud, wire fraud, and other crimes under the RICO Act and other federal laws.
The informant said he witnessed David Rivera, while at CITGO headquarters in Houston, Texas, communicating constantly with Senator Rubio, and suggested an investigation of his cell phone.
He also asserted that Gina Coon, the company’s treasurer, possessed documents, emails, WhatsApp messages, and audio recordings that would confirm the fraudulent transactions between Rivera, Rubio, and their associates.
Now Marco Rubio appears as an “angel” in the trial against Rivera, but his Pinocchio-like, mythomaniac nose will continue to grow. (CubaSí)
