U.S. Ambassador Admits to Spying for Cuba
President to the nation that hosts them. They must be great negotiators and leaders, both within their embassy hierarchy and outside of it.
And their profession is a hard one, fraught with late nights, practically no days off, and intense situations they must navigate skillfully so that everyone can save political face. Due to their personal sacrifices and senior government positions, as a courtesy, they keep the title of Ambassador for life.
Last week, in a plot point worthy of a John le Carré thriller, one of them pleaded guilty to secretly working as a Cuban agent against the United States for more than two decades.
A Duplicitous Diplomat
Victor Manuel Rocha served in the U.S. State Department for 21 years. His positions included serving on the National Security Council from 1995 to 1997 and as the Ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002. His was a storied career.
Except it was also one full of betrayal– his betrayal of the United States as one of its senior-most representatives.
“Today’s plea and sentencing brings to an end more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by the defendant,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division in an April 12 press release.
“Rocha admitted to acting as an agent of the Cuban government at the same time he held numerous positions of trust in the U.S. government, a staggering betrayal of the American people and an acknowledgment that every oath he took to the United States was a lie,” Olsen said.
Rocha’s acts included committing espionage against the United States during his entire State Department tenure, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office, South District of Florida, in a statement released on the day of Rocha’s plea.
Sentencing
After receiving his plea, Judge Beth Bloom sentenced Rocha to the maximum—15 years behind bars, followed by three years of supervised release. He’ll also have to pay a $500,000 fine and cooperate with counterintelligence officials in their continuing investigations of his activities on behalf of Cuba and the damage they caused to the United States.
At the age of 73, Rocha’s 15-year sentence could amount to the rest of his life behind bars. In the event he ever does walk free, he’ll also forfeit all of the retirement benefits he earned as a State Department employee.
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