U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio testifies in trial vs old pal David Rivera

In what reads like a spy novel set between Washington, D.C., Caracas and Calle Ocho, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — a one-time Tallahassee roommate to former Congressman David “King Nine Lives” Rivera — testified in court Tuesday in a case against the latter, who is accused of secretly and illegally lobbying for the Venezuelan government.

High-stakes international drama. Suitcases of cash. Code names that sound like they came straight out of a Bond movie. And right in the middle of it all: Rubio taking the stand against his old Miami political compañero.

This is a movie in the making.

Rivera, once a rising Republican star in Miami, is accused of quietly pocketing $50 million to act as an unregistered foreign agent for interests tied to Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, through its U.S. subsidiary, CITGO. The allegation: while Washington was publicly treating the regime of Nicolás Maduro as a pariah, Rivera was allegedly working the back channels to soften that stance — with money, promises, and a whole lot of cloak-and-dagger.

Rubio, now Secretary of State but back then a U.S. senator, told jurors he had no idea his old friend was on anyone’s payroll — let alone one connected to Caracas. Had he known, Rubio said, those 2017 meetings would have never happened. Period.

But those meetings are where the story gets interesting.

According to testimony, Rivera showed up in Rubio’s orbit with what sounded like a geopolitical fairy tale: a well-connected Venezuelan insider, TV magnate Raúl Gorrín, supposedly had Maduro ready to step aside peacefully. There was talk of a letter. A transition. No vengeance. No retribution. The kind of language you float when you’re trying to convince a dictator to pack it up quietly.

At one point, Rubio said Rivera even flashed a laptop showing what looked like a very real — and very large — bank account, allegedly meant to fund opposition efforts. Enough to make anyone pause. Not enough to make it real.

Because when Rubio finally sat down at the Mayflower Hotel expecting to see that resignation letter? It never showed. The whole thing, he testified, felt like a mirage. A setup. A waste of time.

Behind the scenes, prosecutors say Rivera and his alleged co-conspirators weren’t just talking — they were speaking in code. Maduro was “El Guaguero,” which means bus driver. Money was “la luz,” or “the light.” And Rubio? “Miss Clairol.” (Because Rubio means blonde in Spanish).

The million-dollar — or, rather, $50 million — question now sitting in front of a jury: Was Rivera secretly helping Maduro’s regime cozy up to Washington? Or was he running some kind of freelance double agent game, trying to nudge Maduro out while cashing checks along the way?

Rubio didn’t pretend to have that answer. What he did offer was something more awkward — and maybe more telling: a relationship where he “generally knew” Rivera was up to something, but didn’t ask too many questions.

A little don’t-ask-don’t-tell diplomacy, Miami-style.

But he did throw his old buddy a lifeline: From the stands, Rubio testified that Rivera, like him, is “a vociferous anti-communist voice … one of the leading voices against the Castro regime” and “a strong anti-Maduro voice.”

In a text to Political Cortadito, Rivera said “Marco Rubio made it abundantly clear that everything we worked on together in 2017 was meant to remove Maduro from power in Venezuela.”

And now the backdrop to all this is what we now know came next. Maduro didn’t step down in 2017. He doubled down, cementing power after a widely condemned election. Years later, according to this telling, it took a U.S. operation pushed by Rubio himself to finally remove him — landing the strongman in a New York jail cell, where he’s now invoking the Fifth instead of taking the stand.

And Rivera? He’s left trying to convince a jury that in a story full of secret meetings, shadowy money and coded messages, he wasn’t working for the bad guys.

Just maybe freelancing in the gray.

This kind of independent, government watchdog reporting is crucial to transparency and democracy. And more so every day. Help shine a light on the darker corners of our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Venezuelan money is accepted, Congressman. Ladra thanks everyone for their support.

U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio testifies in trial vs old pal David Rivera added by Ladra on March 25, 2026
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