Rubio testimony sheds light on friend's shadowy Venezuela play

Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified on Tuesday that his longtime friend and former Miami Congressman David Rivera concealed a $50 million consulting contract with Venezuela's state oil company subsidiary CITGO when they met in summer 2017, when Rubio was a U.S. senator. Rubio said he would not have met with Rivera had he known about the deal, which the government alleges made Rivera an unregistered foreign agent for Maduro's regime seeking to normalize U.S. relations. The trial centers on whether Rivera was actually working to help Maduro bribe his way to Trump, or whether he was secretly working against the dictator's interests. Rubio's testimony detailed three 2017 meetings where Rivera and alleged co-conspirator Esther Nuhfer pitched a supposed plan for regime insiders to peacefully remove Maduro, using coded language in their communications (calling Maduro "El Guaguero" and money "la luz"). In January 2026, Rubio—now leading the Trump administration's foreign policy—orchestrated the military operation that removed Maduro from Caracas, who is now in U.S. custody facing narco-terrorism charges.