Via Madeline HalpertBBC Information, New York4 December 2023, 19:41 GMTUpdated 44 mins agoImage supply, AFP by way of Getty ImagesImage caption, Victor Manuel Rocha, a former US ambassador to Bolivia, is accused of performing as a Cuban agent for greater than 40 yearsA former US diplomat who served as ambassador to Bolivia has been charged with running as an agent of the Cuban govt for greater than 40 years. Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, is accused of serving to Cuba collect intelligence towards the United States since 1981.Mr Rocha referred to the United States as “the enemy” and claimed his paintings as a undercover agent “reinforced the Revolution”, in step with courtroom papers.It was once now not straight away transparent if he had a attorney to touch upon his behalf.The previous diplomat was once arrested ultimate Friday in Miami after an undercover sting operation that lasted greater than a yr, in step with the United States Division of Justice.Legal professional Common Merrick Garland stated the case was once “one of the vital highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations” of the United States govt by means of a international agent.”For over 40 years, Victor Manuel Rocha served as an agent of the Cuban govt and sought out and bought positions inside america govt that would offer him with get right of entry to to private knowledge and the power to have an effect on US international coverage,” Mr Garland stated. Born in Colombia, Mr Rocha was once raised in New York Town and bought levels from Yale, Harvard and Georgetown. He labored as US ambassador to Bolivia from 1999 to 2002, in step with prosecutors, and served in different govt roles – together with on the Nationwide Safety Council – for 25 years. The USA and Cuba have had a fraught courting since Fidel Castro overthrew a US-backed govt over 60 years in the past. The USA imposed a industry embargo towards Cuba within the Nineteen Sixties. Former President Barack Obama and previous Cuban President Raul Castro took steps to normalise family members in 2015, despite the fact that former US President Donald Trump later reversed many of those movements. Courtroom paperwork unsealed on Monday allege that Mr Rocha made a number of journeys to Cuba, the place he helped to advance the pursuits of Cuban officers from 1981 to the current. The paperwork supply few main points at the knowledge Mr Rocha allegedly shared, however define the undercover FBI operation that ended in his arrest. In November 2022, an undercover FBI agent contacted Mr Rocha by way of WhatsApp, claiming to be a consultant of Cuban Intelligence Products and services handing over a message from “your pals from Havana”, the charging report said. Mr Rocha allegedly agreed to fulfill the agent a number of occasions, together with as soon as at a meals courtroom, as a result of there was once “no risk for someone to look me” there, he stated, in step with courtroom paperwork.Throughout the conferences with the undercover FBI agent, Rocha started to expose information about his time running as a undercover agent for the Cuban govt, the charging report alleged. “I knew precisely how one can do it and clearly the Dirección [Cuba’s intelligence agency] accompanied me … lt’s a protracted procedure and it wasn’t simple,” Mr Rocha allegedly advised the FBI agent. He many times “described and celebrated his task” running as an agent for Cuban intelligence products and services, prosecutors stated. Mr Rocha allegedly used the time period “we” to explain Cuba and himself, and stated he sought after to “give protection to … what we now have carried out”.The previous diplomat could also be accused of offering false and deceptive knowledge to the United States govt and making false statements to procure go back and forth paperwork, the Justice Division stated.
