Manuel Rocha, 73, who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, was arrested and charged with secretly supporting Cuba and its spy agency for decades.
According to court documents, Rocha served "as a covert agent of Cuba’s intelligence services" in the communist country's "clandestine intelligence-gathering missions against the United States."
During meetings with an undercover FBI agent who pretended to be working as a Cuban intelligence operative, Rocha repeatedly referred to the U.S. as "the enemy," while also praising Fidel Castro.
Rocha, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Columbia, worked in various roles in the State Department beginning around 1981. But his work to support Cuba's spy operations continued even after he left the State Department.
From in or around 2006 until in or around 2012, Rocha was an advisor to the Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, a joint command of the United States military whose area of responsibility includes Cuba.
The complaint alleges that Rocha 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. Rocha provided false and misleading information to the United States to maintain his secret mission; traveled outside the United States to meet with Cuban intelligence operatives; and made false and misleading statements to obtain travel documents. [...]
The complaint alleges that, in a series of meetings during 2022 and 2023, with an undercover agent from the FBI posing as a covert Cuban General Directorate of Intelligence representative, Rocha made repeated statements admitting his “decades” of work for Cuba, spanning “40 years.” When the undercover told Rocha he was “a covert representative here in Miami” whose mission was “to contact you, introduce myself as your new contact, and establish a new communication plan,” Rocha answered “Yes,” and proceeded to engage in a lengthy conversation during which he described and celebrated his activity as a Cuban intelligence agent. Throughout the meetings, Rocha behaved as a Cuban agent, consistently referring to the United States as “the enemy,” and using the term “we” to describe himself and Cuba. Rocha additionally praised Fidel Castro as the “Comandante,” and referred to his contacts in Cuban intelligence as his “Compañeros” (comrades) and to the Cuban intelligence services as the “Dirección.” Rocha described his work as a Cuban agent as “a grand slam.” (DOJ)
In his first conversation with the FBI agent, Rocha described how he was "in charge" of an incident, the "knock down of the small planes," which caused tension between the U.S. and Cuba. The prosecutors believe he was referring to when Cuba shot down two planes belonging to the Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based humanitarian group, killing Armando Alejandre, Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales, on Feb. 24, 1996.
“This action exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement. “We allege that 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. 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. To betray that trust by falsely pledging 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.”
Rocha has been charged with conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the DOJ; acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General; and lying to obtain a passport.