Ex-U.S. ambassador to Bolivia accused of decades-long profession working for Cuban intelligence

A former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia was engaged on behalf of Cuban intelligence officers even earlier than he started a decades-long profession within the State Department that included a stint within the White House through the Clinton administration, federal prosecutors stated Monday.

Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, is accused of orchestrating one of many “highest-reaching and longest-lasting” infiltrations of the U.S. authorities by a international agent, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland stated.

“For over 40 years, Victor Manuel Rocha served as an agent of the Cuban government and sought out and obtained positions within the United States government that would provide him with access to non-public information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy,” Mr. Garland stated after the case, which first leaked late final week, was formally unveiled on Monday.

He is charged with conspiring to behave as an agent of a international authorities with out prior notification; performing as an agent of a international authorities with out prior notification; and utilizing a passport obtained by a false assertion, federal prosecutors stated.

Mr. Rocha, a Miami resident, was born in Colombia and have become a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1978. He was already a loyal supporter of Fidel Castro’s Communist authorities in Cuba when he joined the State Department in 1981, authorities stated.

“Rocha always kept his status as a Cuban agent secret in order to protect himself and others and to allow himself the opportunity to engage in additional clandestine activity,” in keeping with court docket paperwork within the case.

At a primary court docket look Monday in Miami, a tearful Mr. Rocha declined to enter a plea as prosecutors stated extra fees could also be lodged towards him. A detention listening to has been tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.

Throughout his U.S. diplomatic profession, Mr. Rocha at all times denied engaged on behalf of a international authorities. But federal prosecutors stated he was an agent of Cuba’s General Directorate of Intelligence, referred to as the DGI.

“Like all federal officials, U.S. diplomats swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Acting as an agent for Cuba — a hostile foreign power — is a blatant violation of that oath and betrays the trust of the American people,” FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in a press release.

Even as he maintained a secret id as a Cuban agent, Mr. Rocha rose steadily by means of the ranks of the State Department through the years. He served in a number of more and more senior positions at American embassies in Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

In 1994, he was assigned to the National Security Council because the director of inter-American affairs. One of his tasks was oversight of Cuba, in keeping with the court docket paperwork in his case.

Mr. Rocha’s diplomatic profession was capped off in November 1999 when he was named the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia. He later served as an advisor at U.S. Southern Command, chargeable for U.S. army operations all through Latin America.

“Those who have the privilege of serving in the government of the United States are given an enormous amount of trust by the public we serve,” Mr. Garland stated. “To betray that trust by falsely pleading loyalty to the United States while serving a foreign power is a crime that will be met with the full force of the Justice Department.”

In late 2022, FBI brokers had been tipped off that Mr. Rocha had been engaged on behalf of Cuba for a number of years. An spy reached out to him in Miami, saying Cuban intelligence officers instructed him to reestablish contact. They met on Nov. 16, 2022, in entrance of Miami’s First Presbyterian Church.

During the assembly, Mr. Rocha stated Cuban intelligence officers had directed him to guide a “normal life” as a rising American diplomat. To throw off any suspicious of Communist leanings, he started to develop a public picture as a “right-wing person,” FBI brokers stated within the court docket paperwork.

He stated the assembly was his first with a Cuban official since 2016 or 2017 throughout his final journey to Havana.

Federal brokers with the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service interviewed Mr. Rocha on Dec. 1, 2023. Federal prosecutors stated he “lied repeatedly” throughout questioning and denied assembly with anybody matching the outline of the spy. Then, they informed him the conferences had been recorded.

“Rocha stated that he did not want to comment,” in keeping with the court docket paperwork.