Former US ambassador to Bolivia, Victor Manuel Rocha, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting to spying on the US government for communist Cuba. The Miami-based US District Judge Beth Bloom accepted Rocha’s guilty plea on two counts, including acting as an agent of a foreign government, and imposed a $500,000 fine, the maximum penalty allowed. Attorney General Merrick Garland described the case as one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the US government by a foreign agent.
Rocha, now 73, was indicted in December and sentenced on Friday after more than four decades of betrayal and deceit, according to Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen. Rocha admitted to acting as an agent of the Cuban government while holding positions of trust in the US government, a betrayal of the American people and a violation of the oaths he took to the United States. Rocha, who served as ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, held high-ranking posts in embassies and the White House during the Clinton administration over his more than 20 years in public service.
Between 2006 and 2012, Rocha served as an advisor to the US Southern Command in Miami, providing him access to nonpublic and classified information that could potentially affect US foreign policy. Prosecutors revealed that Rocha’s involvement with Cuba’s intelligence service began in 1973 and continued throughout his career in government. Despite portraying himself as a Cuba hardliner to avoid suspicion, Rocha was arrested after meetings with undercover FBI agents posing as Cuban intelligence officials, during which he admitted to decades of spying on behalf of Cuba.
During his meetings with the undercover FBI agents, Rocha referred to the US as “the enemy” and praised Fidel Castro, calling his work as a Cuban agent “enormous” and claiming it had strengthened the Cuban Revolution. The extent of the information Rocha provided to Cuba or how he may have influenced US policy towards the island has not been revealed by the US government. Cuban-born Rep. Carlos Gimenez criticized the sentence, stating that 15 years in federal prison will never be enough for the harm Rocha inflicted on the nation. The Justice Department did not charge Rocha with espionage, which would have carried a stiffer sentence.
Overall, Rocha’s case highlights a significant infiltration of the US government by a Cuban agent and the consequences of a high-ranking government official acting as a spy for a foreign government. The severity of his sentence emphasizes the gravity of his actions and the impact they had on US national security. Despite portraying himself as a Cuba hardliner, Rocha’s admissions of spying for Cuba over four decades reveal a deep betrayal of the American people and a violation of the oaths he took to serve the United States. The specific details of the information he provided to Cuba and how he may have influenced US foreign policy remain undisclosed.
