2023-12-04 19:43:00
Former US ambassador is said to have spied for Cuba for four decades
December 4, 2023, 8:43 p.m. Listen to article
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Victor Manuel Rocha had an impressive career spanning four decades in several US authorities. He is then said to have praised Cuba and Fidel Castro to an FBI investigator and told them about his espionage activities. The US Department of Justice announces “full severity”.
A former US ambassador to Bolivia is said to have spied for Cuba for a total of 40 years. The now 73-year-old career diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha is accused of “one of the most far-reaching and longest-lasting” cases of infiltration of US authorities by a foreign agent, said Justice Secretary Merrick Garland in Washington. Rocha is said to have supported Cuba as an agent since 1981.
According to the Justice Department, Rocha admitted his spying activities to an undercover FBI agent posing as a Cuban agent. During the meetings with him, Rocha consistently behaved like a representative of Cuba, referred to the USA as an “enemy”, spoke of Cuba as “we” and praised the late Cuban head of state Fidel Castro. He called his own work for Cuba a “direct hit,” it said.
The later naturalized native of Colombia began his career in the US State Department in 1981 and worked in the US diplomatic service, including in the Cuban capital Havana. Under President Bill Clinton, Rocha was a member of the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 and then under Clinton and under his successor George W. Bush, Rocha was ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002.
“The trust of US citizens has been abused”
During his work, Rocha had access to confidential information and classified information, said the US Department of Justice. He was also able to influence US foreign policy, the Justice Department said.
Rocha was scheduled to appear before a judge in the US port city of Miami this Monday. He is charged with, among other things, conspiracy to benefit a foreign government, acting as an unauthorized agent for a foreign government and obtaining a U.S. passport by false pretenses.
Attorney General Garland stated that anyone who, as a US public servant, abuses the trust of US citizens in such a way as Rocha did, is committing a crime that his office will deal with with “full force.”
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