US accuses former ambassador of spying for Cuba over decades
- Victor Manuel Rocha served in Bolivia, Argentina and was a one-time member of the White House’s National Security Council
- US calls it ‘one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent’
US prosecutors accused a former US diplomat of spying for Cuba’s intelligence service over the decades he held top posts in embassies across Latin America and at the White House, according to a criminal complaint.
Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement called the alleged crimes by Victor Manuel Rocha “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent”.
Rocha, 73, a former US ambassador to Bolivia who was also posted to Mexico, Argentina and other nations, acted as a “clandestine agent of the Cuban government” from 1981 to the present day, according to a complaint unsealed Monday before the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
During an initial appearance in federal court Monday in Florida, Rocha broke down into tears and did not enter a plea, according to The New York Times.
In secretly recorded conversations, Rocha boasted that Cuba’s intelligence service, the Dirección de Inteligencia, helped guide him as he rose through the ranks of the US diplomatic corps.
During the Clinton administration, he served as director of Inter-American affairs at the National Security Council and went on to serve in Havana, Buenos Aires and other capitals.
“It was a very meticulous process,” Rocha told an undercover agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to the complaint. “I knew exactly how to do it and obviously the Dirección accompanied me.”
If true, Rocha’s actions represent a severe intelligence failure by successive US administrations during the Cold War, when Fidel Castro’s Cuba was seen as America’s chief regional adversary due to its alliance with the Soviet Union.
The indictment suggests Rocha gave Cuba insight into US policy thanks to his access to classified material.
Rocha, who was born in Colombia and became a US citizen in 1978, currently lives in Miami. After leaving the State Department, he took on other positions, including as an adviser to the commander of the US Southern Command, whose area of responsibility includes Cuba.
As recently as this February, Rocha remained a steadfast loyalist to the Communist cause in Cuba and repeatedly referred to the US as the enemy, according to the complaint.
Other Americans have also been arrested for leaking secrets to Havana, including Walter and Gwendolyn Myers, who were indicted in 2009 on charges of spying for Cuba for nearly 30 years.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
