The United States is at war with Iran. The Middle East is on fire. NATO is falling apart. Cuba is on the brink of collapse. And Venezuela is still being run by Maduro allies.
And so, where will Marco Rubio be Tuesday morning?
Well, the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor will be in a federal courtroom in downtown Miami, testifying against his longtime friend, former Congressman David Rivera.
A little background
In 2017, Rivera was given a secret, $50 million contract by the US subsidiary of the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA. Supposedly, the contract was to help the company expand business in the United States, but federal prosecutors claim it was really a payoff by Venezuela’s government to try to negotiate an end to US sanctions against the country.
And why would Venezuela hire a middling, one-term former congressman with a history of scandal?
Well, one possible answer is that Rivera helped them gain access to Rubio.
Rubio and Rivera have been close friends for decades. They owned a house together in Tallahassee and were roommates when they served in the Florida Legislature. And in terms of gaining access, it worked.
Rivera arranged two meetings with Rubio and others in 2017 to discuss the future of Venezuela.
Ultimately, nothing came of the meetings, but in December 2022, prosecutors charged Rivera with failing to register as a foreign agent and money laundering.
Rivera denies he did anything wrong, and Rubio has never been accused of wrongdoing. After Rivera was indicted and the meetings with Rubio were revealed, Rubio said he did not know about the contract Rivera had with Venezuela.
Rubio to appeal in Miami federal court
In advance of the trial, CBS News Miami spoke to Miami Herald federal courts reporter Jay Weaver about what Rubio is expected to say when he takes the stand.
“Well, I think he’s going to have to come clean, and he’s going to have to be very straightforward, and he is going to stick to what he told the FBI,” Weaver said. “And what he told the FBI, that he did meet with David Rivera, his old friend. He’s going to tell them that they met twice in Washington DC in 2017 and they did talk about Venezuela. But what he’s going to probably say is, look, we talked about Venezuela, but we talked about an exit strategy. We both wanted Maduro out. We both want to change the regime. And we both wanted him to hold fair, free and fair elections. And clearly, [Maduro] was opposed to it.”