On December 4, 2023, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that former U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Victor Manuel Rocha has been charged with acting illegally as a foreign agent of the Cuban government.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
A former American diplomat made his first court appearance in Miami on Monday in a potentially explosive espionage case.
According to prosecutors, Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, spent more than 40 years spying for Cuba while working at the State Department and then serving as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia in the Clinton administration.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference Monday that Rocha’s case is “one of the most extensive and long-running cases of infiltration of the United States government by foreign agents.”
Rocha was indicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida on one count of acting as an unlawful agent of a foreign government, one count of conspiracy to do so, and a third count of using a passport obtained by false representation. It was done. The Dec. 1 complaint states: not sealed Monday.
But the FBI agents’ affidavits paint a larger picture of Rocha’s alleged activities than the individual charges convey.
The indictment alleges that “from at least 1981 to the present, Rocha secretly assisted the Republic of Cuba and its secret intelligence gathering mission against the United States as a secret agent for the Cuban Intelligence Service.”
“To further that role, Rocha has sought employment with the U.S. government that provides (1) access to non-public information, including classified information, and (2) the ability to influence U.S. foreign policy. maintained,” prosecutors wrote. .
Rocha was arrested after a year-long undercover investigation by the FBI, the Justice Department said.
Undercover FBI agents posing as Cuban agents met with Rocha several times over the past year, according to the complaint.
The life Rocha allegedly described to them sounded like the plot of the HBO spy thriller “The Americans.”
“Ever since Direxion asked me…to live a normal life…I have been creating a right-wing legend,” Rocha is quoted as saying, referring to Cuban intelligence. Legend is a spy term for a fictional biography created by a secret agent to hide his identity.
Bolivian President Hugo Banzer (left) shakes hands with the new U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia, Victor Manuel Rocha, during a ceremony at the Government Palace in La Paz on August 3, 2000.
Reuters
After leaving his State Department position, Rocha held several private sector jobs, including most recently as a senior international business advisor at LLYC USA in Miami, according to the filing. There is. He left his job at law firm Foley & Lardner in August, a company spokeswoman said.
LLYC told CNBC on Monday that it had made a “decision to sever ties with Mr. Rocha,” effective immediately. The company added that it will cooperate with the Department of Justice and other authorities as necessary.
Rocha described his work as a huge success and “more than a Grand Slam.”
“My biggest concern, my top priority…is any action on the part of Washington. — would put the life of ~ at risk — According to the complaint, Rocha told FBI agents to go undercover.
The complaint notes that on several occasions Mr. Rocha lied under oath about his loyalty to the United States and denied working for foreign companies.
Just Friday, Rocha denied in a voluntary interview with State Department officials that he had ever met with Cuban agents who were actually undercover agents for the FBI.
Mr. Rocha appeared before a federal judge, and a bail hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. The Justice Department said further charges against Rocha remain pending.
“Those of us who have the privilege of serving in the United States government are trusted with the utmost confidence by the people we serve,” Garland said. “Betraying that trust by pledging false allegiance to the United States while serving a foreign power is a crime, and the Department of Justice will take full action.”
