A U.S. career diplomat was arrested on Friday on charges of secretly serving as an agent of the Cuban regime, according to court documents revealed Monday.
According to an exclusive news release on Sunday night from AP, the accused is 73-year-old Victor Manuel Rocha.
According to prosecutors, Rocha “secretly supported the Republic of Cuba and its clandestine intelligence-gathering mission against the United States by serving as a covert agent of Cuba’s intelligence services.”
SCOOP: The FBI arrested in Miami a former U.S. ambassador accused of serving as a foreign agent of Cuba.
Not clear what Manuel Rocha did for the U.S.' Cold War adversary but more is expected Monday when he makes his first court appearance.
w/@etuckerAP https://t.co/Izdhed6srd
— Joshua Goodman (@APjoshgoodman) December 4, 2023
Rocha served as U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia and developed his diplomatic career for 25 years under Democratic and Republican administrations. He worked primarily in Latin America during the Cold War and also served in the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.
Most recently, according to The New York Times, he was an advisor to the U.S. military command responsible for Cuba.
According to prosecutors, Rocha, through his work as a government official, had unique access to documents that were not public and worked as a spy for the Cuban regime since 1981.
According to the indictment, the former ambassador told an undercover FBI agent that the United States was “the enemy,” praised the late dictator Fidel Castro and apparently had contacts with some heads of Cuba’s top spy agency as recently as 2017.
“This action exposes one of the most far-reaching and longest-running infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign agent,” stated Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who further noted Rocha had “sought employment in the U.S. government that would provide him with access to non-public information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy.”
Rocha faces a total of three charges: one for conspiracy, one for acting as an agent of a foreign government, and a third for using a passport obtained through a false statement.
In a statement sent to Voz Media, Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was shocked by the news of Rocha’s arrest and asserted that his crime involves one of the most significant crimes that can be committed against the United States.
“I was shocked at the charges filed against former Ambassador Rocha. Abusing the public trust to aid and abet a criminal, anti-American regime is one of the worst crimes any American could commit against our nation,” McCaul told Voz Media.
“If convicted, it should serve as a reminder that the Cuban regime remains an ever-present threat to the US and our interests around the world,” he said.
