The law firm of Washington attorney Bob Amsterdam has been retained by the Venezuelan government to fight international sanctions weeks after Foley & Lardner dropped the country as a client under political pressure from Florida.

Amsterdam, founding partner of Amsterdam & Partners, which has offices in Washington and London, confirmed Tuesday that his firm has an "incredibly preliminary" retainer to represent Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro's inspector general, Reinaldo Muñoz, and by extension the Maduro government.

Foley & Larder backed away from representing the Venezuelan officials in January days after registering as a foreign agent to handle the work in the U.S. for $12.5 million.

Amsterdam did not disclose his fees, saying "everything is under discussion" with the client and emphasizing the "early stage" of talks. Amsterdam, who is Canadian, said he would address Canadian sanctions against Venezuela. Partner Andrew Durkovic would tackle U.S. sanctions.

The firm was motivated to take on Venezuela as a client specifically to address sanctions, which Amsterdam sees as exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the South American country. A UN report released Sunday said one in three Venezuelans is facing hunger and 74% of families have adopted "food-related coping strategies."

"I have been historically against sanctions, which I consider to have backfired with respect to the United States for decades," he said.

Maduro was elected president of Venezuela in 2013 following the death of his mentor, longtime Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chavez.

U.S. sanctions began with an executive order signed by President Barack Obama in 2015 against top Venezuelan officials. Measures have since expanded to include sanctions against Maduro and the state oil company.

The U.S. has called the Maduro administration an "authoritarian regime" that has "deliberately and repeatedly abused the rights of citizens through the use of violence, repression and criminalization of demonstrations."

The U.S. and nearly 60 other countries recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's rightful leader, arguing Maduro's 2018 reelection was illegitimate. Russia, China, Turkey and Cuba back Maduro.

Meanwhile, Venezuela faces an increasingly dire economic and humanitarian crisis. More than 4 million Venezuelans — roughly 16% of the population — have fled in the last four years alone amid hyperinflation that makes it difficult to purchase sometimes scarce food and medicine.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-FL, penned a scathing letter to Amsterdam & Partners on Monday after learning  the firm has taken on Maduro as a client. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have relocated to Florida over the past two decades as conditions in their country slowly deteriorated.

Scott, who was Florida's governor before he became a senator in 2019, called for a boycott of Amsterdam & Partners.

"As long as you represent a dangerous dictator who is murdering his own people, I will refuse to meet with anyone in your firm," Scott wrote and posted the letter on Twitter. "And I am urging every one of my colleagues to join me."

Amsterdam shot back via Twitter that Scott's threats "have more to do with mob rule than rule of law."

"We're certainly not going to let the senator and his boycott stop us," Amsterdam said by phone, arguing everyone has the right to counsel and suggesting Scott was "groveling for votes."

Amsterdam has represented governments and people in high-profile cases. Past clients include Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Yukos oil company in Russia. He also has represented mining industry companies facing expropriation, intervention and harassment by governments, and corporations such as the Four Seasons Resort and Hotels Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Amsterdam defended members of the pro-democracy movement in Thailand at the behest of the former Thai prime minister, resulting in an appeal to the International Criminal Court concerning crimes against humanity committed by the Thai Army. And he served as counsel to prominent political leaders and activists such as Chee Soon Juan in Singapore and the former president of Zambia, Rupiah Banda. He also was hired to assist Turkey as it sought the extradition of a U.S.-based cleric and political enemy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A decade ago, Amsterdam represented a banker accused of helping businessmen defraud the Venezuelan government of millions of dollars. Once free on bail, that banker fled to the U.S. In retaliation, then-president Chavez jailed the judge who signed the banker's release.