Miami Democrats demand congressional investigation into David Rivera’s Venezuela work

David Rivera last held elected office in 2013, but the former congressman’s business dealings continue to haunt Miami Republicans.

Miami Democrats on Friday called for a congressional investigation into Rivera’s consulting work with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, that came to light this week when the company’s U.S. subsidiary sued him for breach of contract. Rivera — a one-term member of the House from South Florida — told the Miami Herald Wednesday that the State Department and National Security Council were aware of his work and claimed the deal was actually a ruse to help opponents of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Rivera, a harsh critic of socialist regimes in Cuba and Venezuela while holding elected office, was paid $15 million as a down payment on a three-month, $50 million contract through his consulting company, Interamerican Consulting Inc., according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York federal court. The lawsuit said Rivera was hired to improve PDVSA’s reputation in America amid an economic collapse in Venezuela.

The Trump administration has denounced Maduro, and in early 2019, it recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the country’s legitimate leader. Maduro remains in power after Guaidó was unable to convince key Maduro officials to back him.

Democrats said the amount of money Rivera was paid and his past ties to high-ranking Miami Republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio should prompt congressional oversight.

“If I were Marco Rubio, I would be calling for an investigation immediately,” said Democratic state Rep. Javier Fernandez. “I think it’s absolutely essential given the size of the consulting contract. The amount for such a short duration of work is pretty astounding and warrants an investigation.”

Rubio, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, said earlier this week he was not aware of Rivera’s work until it was reported by The New York Times on Wednesday.

“If the facts are as they have been reported, it would be deeply disappointing news,” Rubio said to reporters on Capitol Hill.

A senior Trump administration official told the Miami Herald it was entirely false that either the NSC or the State Department were aware of Rivera’s activities.

“We are not aware of any of the former congressman’s business dealings with the illegitimate and tyrannical regime of Nicolás Maduro or its associates,” the official said.

In a text message to the Miami Herald on Friday, Rivera said he welcomes an investigation. Rivera said his consulting work was an “operation” to undermine Maduro in concert with dissidents inside Citgo, a U.S.-based company that is owned by PDVSA, and the Venezuelan opposition movement.

“I welcome any scrutiny of this operation and any opportunity to reveal its true worthy nature,” Rivera texted.

Spokespeople for a group of imprisoned Citgo executives and Venezuela opposition leader Leopoldo López have said Rivera’s claims are false.

Rivera, who spent years in Florida’s state House before he won his single term in Congress, has deep relationships with South Florida’s politicos. In 2017, Rivera introduced Kellyanne Conway — a Republican pollster who is now counselor to the president — at the Miami-Dade Republican Party’s Lincoln Day fundraising dinner and boasted about their 30-year friendship.

Miami Commissioners Joe Carollo and Alex Diaz de la Portilla smiled for a photo with Rivera as recently as November, when Diaz de la Portilla won his election to the city post. Both Diaz de la Portilla and Carollo have attacked campaign opponents in recent years over alleged ties to Maduro, and Carollo once convinced Miami commissioners to denounce the owners of Globovision, a TV network that now has close ties to Maduro. Carollo said Friday evening that he has no association with Rivera.

According to el Nuevo Herald, Rivera was also seen in Washington in 2017 with Globovision’s Raul Gorrín, who was lobbying the Trump administration on the future of Venezuela and an exit strategy for Maduro.

In 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami filed a corruption case against PDVSA officials and business people, including Gorrín, accusing them of stealing billions of dollars from the national oil company and transferring the money to Europe and South Florida, where they bought lavish homes.

Following news of Rivera’s work for PDVSA, Miami-Dade mayoral candidate and county commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo, a Republican whose father fought in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, announced he would return a $1,000 contribution from Rivera’s company. “I’ve consistently condemned any activity that aids the Maduro dictatorship,” Bovo tweeted.

Miami Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, another vocal Maduro critic who was a key part of the Trump administration’s rollback of parts of Barack Obama’s Cuba policy, said he was not aware of Rivera’s work.

“Congressman Diaz-Balart has not had any contact with David Rivera in years and was not aware of his work for PDVSA under Maduro,” Diaz-Balart’s chief of staff, Cesar Gonzalez, said in an email. “No one who cares for the cause of freedom should ever work for Maduro’s PDVSA, and that includes David Rivera. The idea that Maduro’s PDVSA or David Rivera could influence the Trump administration’s Venezuela policy is laughable.”

Frank Mora, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere under President Obama, said Rubio himself should lead an investigation into Rivera through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rubio, a former close friend of Rivera’s who bought a house with him in Tallahassee when they both served in the state Legislature, now leads the Senate subcommittee responsible for Latin American affairs.

“He always talks about how much he cares about Venezuelans,” Mora said. “I think he should be on the lead, a bipartisan lead with [New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob] Menendez and others on how the money was used. He shouldn’t run away from it. He should mobilize his committee to do a serious investigation.”

Democrats, in a call with the press Friday, also said Rivera’s work is part of a larger hypocrisy by the Republican Party on Venezuela and Cuba policy. They noted that Republicans were quick to denounce all Democrats when a handful of Democratic lawmakers described Guaidó’s recognition as Venezuela’s legitimate leader as a “coup,” but they remained silent on Trump administration policies that adversely affect Venezuelans in the U.S., such as declining to expand Temporary Protected Status to include Venezuelans. TPS allows recipients from a designated country to live and work in the U.S. without being deported for a defined period of time.

“At the same time as Republican leaders try to make it seem like their ideology and their party is the only one fighting for democracy, we have very egregious and direct examples of hypocrisy and we don’t see any outrage on the Republican side,” said state Sen. José Javier Rodríguez, D-Miami. “Where is the outrage?”

Rodríguez and Mora also noted that Cubans and Venezuelans continue to be deported by the Trump administration, despite the longstanding objections of Democrats and Republicans in South Florida, home to the country’s largest Cuban and Venezuelan communities.

The Trump campaign has spent years courting Cuban and Venezuelan voters in Miami-Dade County as part of a strategy to win Florida in 2020 when President Trump runs for reelection.

Juan Gonzalez, who worked with likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Latin America policy while he was vice president, said Biden is the better choice to bring change that encourages democracy in the region while also helping Cubans and Venezuelans who’ve made Miami their home.

“He has made 16 trips to Latin American and engaged personally on those issues,” Gonzalez said of Biden. “As president, he’s going to put the interests of the Cuban people first and foremost in his agenda.”

Rodríguez said Rivera’s activities have given Florida Democrats a new talking point during the 2020 campaign.

“Absolutely, this will factor in to what Democrats will be communicating on.”

Miami Herald reporter David Smiley and el Nuevo Herald reporter Antonio Maria Delgado contributed to this report.

This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 2:18 PM.