Rivero was arrested in a 2003 roundup of dissidents known as the Black Spring and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released in 2010 after multilateral talks in which Cuba agreed to release those jailed in the Black Spring. In 2019, he signed a letter supporting Cuban political prisoners to release members of Cuba's major political opposition party la Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU), namely the party's leader José Daniel Ferrer. On November 6, 2021, Rivero passed away following respiratory problems unrelated to COVID-19.