Miami’s best known cockroach is back – still up to no good

I once called him a cockroach: Those disgusting little insects one runs into that you think you’ve rid yourself of only to see it suddenly scurry off, hide and turn up elsewhere later. His name is David Rivera. He was once a member of congress from the Miami area.

Rivera has been responsible for using his wiles to enchant numerous South Florida individuals only to see them land in jail. He has also been known to manipulate women into doing his dirty bidding — one of them who landed in jail after becoming a fugitive of the law… because of Rivera.  

He was once a roommate of Senator Marco Rubio when they both served as state legislators in Tallahassee in the early part of the 21st century. A more corrupt pair was hard to find in Florida’s capital city, a place known for its many devious and self-serving politicians. At the time both used the Cuba issue — a sleight of hand act learned from the Diaz Balart brothers and a certain Ileana — to start enriching themselves using this emotionally charged issue to begin their lives of crime masked as serious ambassadors of their community, to whom they only gave lip service with little if any real results.

Before leaving Tallahassee on their way to Washington, DC, they tried one last con where they actually got caught… without having to pay the price of doing wrong. It was the period of the great recession, around 2010, and they had been living in a house they had purchased together in the outskirts of Tallahassee. Just to jog your memory it was a time when thousands of Americans had been fooled into buying homes with no money down and low interest rates for a pre-determined period of time. When that balloon popped and came due after a number of years, interest rates would skyrocket and people found themselves unable to pay their mortgage. We remember the results. Thousands lost homes, and many others lived in those homes without paying a mortgage or taxes for years, until one day they were finally removed by the bank who held their mortgage. 

Rubio and Rivera jumped on that train in order to live without having to pay for housing while in the state legislature. When they left, they abandoned the house they had lived in for free. But they were caught. Still, they got away with it. That case was settled quietly…

As a freshman member of the U.S. House of Representatives Rivera was named one of the most corrupt members of that body. A lot to say when you consider that group. As Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a non-partisan watchdog group, wrote on their website:

“Rookie Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) is a popular guy in the law enforcement community. Multiple agencies on both the state and federal level are actively investigating the Miami member for a whole host of shady schemes that have lined his personal pockets, enriched his friends and family, and shown a total disregard for the truth. It’s no wonder Rep. Rivera has been named by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) as one of the Most Corrupt Members of Congress.”

I thought that after losing his congressional seat to Joe Garcia, and his failed attempts to regain it, we had seen the last of one of Miami’s most infamous cockroaches. But it turns out even the cockroaches have complained about being compared to Rivera.  

And in 2020 he’s back. The slime oozing from his latest pestilent actions may be his greatest feat so far. I will let Patricia Mazzei, a New York Times reporter who broke the story, tell it:

“Venezuela’s state-run oil company was on the verge of financial ruin in 2017 when it decided it needed expert advice on how to improve its reputation and standing with American policymakers who could be instrumental to its survival.

“For help, the company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., or PDVSA, turned to a well-connected former Florida congressman, agreeing to pay his firm $50 million over three months for “strategic consulting services.”

“The ex-congressman was David Rivera, a Cuban-American Republican from Miami who made a political career out of taking strident anti-communist stances — and was now being hired by President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela’s socialist government.”

There’s more to this story. Under the law, Rivera has the right to serve as an agent of a foreign government, that’s if he registers as an agent. He did not…

But let’s put that bit of oversight to the side. Rivera (and I’m throwing Marco in on this) has made a living going after Cuba and its allies as backdrop to what he stands for in politics. Yet… he’s willing to accept a $50 million deal from Maduro’s Venezuela to help improve that country’s reputation with American policy makers. Seriously, I don’t know what else to call this meathead. The cockroaches are right to be insulted.

Now allow me to wonder:

1. Where is Marco Rubio on this? When asked about Rivera, and on his way to serving as chairman of the Senate’s Intelligence Committee, he did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Miami Herald, but they reported that “he said earlier this week he was not aware of Rivera’s work.”

2. I’ve never been a fan of the Maduro government in Venezuela, but handing out millions to someone who may use that same money against you… I wonder who got paid off?

3. If Rivera gets away with this one… I just don’t know. His life has been a mystery since he first reported years ago that he had once worked for USAID. It is something that organization vehemently denied. And yes, USAID is the same nebulous group that once hired Alan Gross to bring in communication equipment to Cuba designed to evade detection. Might Rivera be a covert agent for the U.S. government? Is this what makes him as slippery as the fictional character James Bond?

Finally, I will never forget in the early part of the 2000s, working with a group of people to try to undo what the Supreme Court finally did, the 2008 Sellers of Travel Act, presented by Rivera and approved by the Florida Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist, that increased registration fees and requirements for travel agencies specializing in trips to Cuba.

I remember speaking to a lobbyist we considered hiring, a guy who ended up doing business with Cuba, and a good friend of Rivera’s. In fact, Rivera had been best man at his wedding. I’ll never forget our conversation, I’ve forgotten the year, We were on our way to Tallahassee to meet with then Governor Crist. He asked if we would want to meet with Rivera also. I asked, “Why would we?”… His response was, and I’m paraphrasing because it’s been quite some time now: “Alvaro, David Rivera does not give a shit about Cuba. In fact, if Fidel called him and offered him a deal that would make him rich, he’d become a Fidelista tomorrow…”

It took Maduro to prove him right.

Rivera’s back. And we thought we’d ridden ourselves of the cockroach