Former US ambassador, Manuel Rocha, arrested, accused of spying for Cuba for more than 40 years
Víctor Manuel Rocha, who was the United States ambassador to several Latin American countries, was arrested and will be tried in a court in Miami (USA) accused of spying for the Government of Cuba, the US Attorney's Office reported this Monday.
Rocha, 73 years old and of Colombian origin, is accused of “committing multiple federal crimes by acting secretly for decades as an agent of the Government of the Republic of Cuba,” the US Executive says in a statement.
“This action exposes one of the most far-reaching and longest-running infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent,” said US Attorney General Merrick B.. Garland.
“For more than 40 years, Víctor Manuel Rocha served as an agent of the Cuban Government and sought and obtained positions within the United States Government that would provide him access to non-public information and the ability to affect the foreign policy of the United States,” the prosecutor stated.
According to the statement, the former US State Department employee served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 and was US ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002.
According to the complaint, beginning in approximately 1981 and continuing to the present, Rocha, who had U.S. citizenship, “secretly” supported the Republic of Cuba.
In a press conference, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller stressed that Rocha has no longer worked for the US diplomatic service for more than 20 years.
Miller praised the work of the Prosecutor's Office and the FBI in the accusation against Rocha and assured that the State Department will work with the intelligence services to analyze “the implications for national security” of this case.
Rocha served between 1991 and 1994 as deputy principal officer of the United States Interests Section in Havana, as well as director of Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council in Washington.
The now accused studied in the United States, including at the Taft School and the universities of Yale, Harvard and Georgetown, and worked as a US official and diplomat in delegations from several countries, including Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. , as well as in Italy.
“For decades, Rocha allegedly worked as an undercover agent for Cuba and abused his position of trust in the United States Government to promote the interests of a foreign power,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. said for his contribution.. Olsen of the Department of Justice's National Security Division.