WASHINGTON (AP) — A former senior U.S. diplomat who most recently served as the American ambassador to Bolivia was arrested Friday and charged with acting as a foreign agent of Cuba, according to court documents.
Since 1981 and until today, Victor Manuel Rocha – a naturalized US citizen who was born in Cuba and currently lives in Miami – is said to have spied on behalf of the island nation’s secret service and to have referred to the USA as “the enemy”. and supporting Cuba’s secret intelligence mission, prosecutors said.
While the indictment does not detail the information prosecutors say Rocha shared with the Cubans during the decades he is accused of working with them, the charging documents describe an ongoing relationship he had with Cubans henchmen used to.
Click here to view related media.
Click to expand
Working with unnamed conspirators within the Cuban intelligence service, Rocha “agreed to act as a secret agent of the Cuban government and did so,” according to charging documents.
Initially a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic, Rocha rose through the ranks through various diplomatic posts in the region, including director of Inter-American Affairs at the U.S. National Security Council. According to prosecutors, this role gave him special responsibility for Cuban politics.
Investigators said Rocha had access to sensitive information as a State Department employee, signed nondisclosure agreements and was required to “affirm his loyalty to the United States and the absence of covert activity on behalf of a foreign nation.”
And from 2006 to 2012, Rocha was an adviser to the commander of the US military’s joint command in the region, which included Cuba.
According to court documents, unspecified evidence from the investigation, as well as numerous meetings between Rocha and an undercover FBI agent in recent years, led prosecutors to file charges.
Investigators allege Rocha discussed his decades-long partnership with Cuban intelligence at three meetings in 2022 and 2023, telling the undercover agent at their first meeting outside a Miami church: “My top priority was … any action from Washington.” would – would endanger the lives – of the leadership… of the revolution itself.”
“I have to protect what we have done, because what we have done…the cement that has been strengthened over the last 40 years,” Rocha allegedly told the undercover agent during their second meeting, “What we have done…is enormous. … More than a Grand Slam.”
This image, provided by the Department of Justice and included in the affidavit in support of a criminal complaint, shows Manuel Rocha meeting with an undercover FBI agent. Ministry of Justice / AP
And in June 2023, at their last meeting, the undercover agent asked Rocha if he was “still with us.”
“I am angry. I’m mad…It’s like I’m questioning my masculinity,” Rocha reportedly replied.
Rocha is expected to appear in federal court in Miami on Monday afternoon.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said at an event on Monday: “This action exposes one of the most far-reaching and long-lasting infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign agent.”
The Cuban embassy did not respond to a request for comment, and Rocha’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rocha’s first court appearance was Monday and he will be arraigned later this month.
The charges against Rocha come nearly a year after another Cuban spy was released from prison after more than 20 years behind bars. Ana Montes, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, spied for Cuba for 17 years, revealing the identities of the United States’ covert intelligence officers and their highly sensitive data collection capabilities until her arrest in 2001.
Trending News
Robert Legare