Former Florida congressman David Rivera was found guilty of conspiracy this Friday, in relation to a campaign that tried to influence the US Government to soften sanctions on the Chavista regime of Nicolás Maduro during the first term of Donald Trump (2017-2021).
Rivera was also convicted of registering as a foreign agent and money laundering, along with political advisor Esther Nuhfer, and faces a sentence of 10 years in prison.
The jury trial began five weeks ago in Miami and included the intervention of the current US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, as one of the witnesses against the former congressman.
Rubio, who did not face charges, had known Rivera since the nineties, and indicated that in 2017 he held two meetings with the accused to discuss a plan aimed at facilitating Maduro’s departure and the holding of elections in Venezuela.
According to the prosecution, Rivera was hired by the Venezuelan state oil company to persuade President Trump’s first administration to ease sanctions against the Maduro regime, who was captured on January 3 by the Republican government and faces drug trafficking charges in New York.
This accusation contrasted with the image that the former Republican congressman tried to convey abroad, of extreme harshness against the regimes in Cuba and Venezuela.
“His public image was that of an anti-communist, but he was working for the Maduro regime all the time, and he knew it,” prosecutor Roger Cruz said during the trial, according to statements reported by the Miami Herald newspaper.
Rivera had declared his innocence and defended that he was trying to overthrow the Maduro Government. He also alleged that he was not required to register as a foreign agent because his contract was with the US branch of the Venezuelan state oil company.
