politics
The former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday after admitting decades of espionage against the U.S. government on behalf of communist Cuba.
Miami-based U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom accepted Victor Manuel Rocha's guilty plea on two charges, including acting as an agent of a foreign government, and sentenced him to 10 and a half years in prison and the maximum penalty of 500,000 yen. handed down a fine of $. approved.
Rocha, 73, was indicted in December in what Attorney General Merrick Garland described as “one of the most extensive and long-running cases of infiltration of the U.S. government by foreign agents.”
“Today's arguments and sentencing bring to an end more than 40 years of betrayal and deception by these defendants,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said Friday.
“Rocha's admission that he acted as an agent of the Cuban government while holding a number of positions of trust in the U.S. government is a stunning betrayal of the American people, and every oath he has sworn to the U.S. is a lie. ” the Justice Department official added.
Mr. Rocha, who served as ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, spent more than 20 years in public service under the Clinton administration, holding high-ranking positions at several embassies and even the White House.
From 2006 to 2012, after leaving the State Department, Mr. Rocha served as an advisor to the U.S. Southern Command, a Miami-based Department of Defense joint military command center with responsibility for Cuba.
The Justice Department said his various high-level roles gave him access to nonpublic and classified information and gave him “the ability to influence U.S. foreign policy.”
Mr. Rocha acknowledged that his involvement with Cuban intelligence began in 1973 and continued throughout his government career up to the time of his arrest.
Prosecutors say the Colombian-born career diplomat portrayed himself as a Cuban hardliner opposed to the communist regime to minimize suspicion.
Mr. Rocha was arrested after a series of meetings with undercover FBI agents posing as Cuban intelligence officials, during which Mr. Rocha carried out “decades” and “40 years” of espionage for Cuba. admitted that he had done so.
In a meeting with undercover FBI agents, Rocha referred to the United States as an “enemy” and praised the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, the Justice Department said.
He also described his work as a Cuban agent as “an epic…more than a grand slam” and claimed that what he did “immensely strengthened the revolution…”
The U.S. government has not disclosed what information Mr. Rocha provided to Cuba or how it influenced U.S. policy toward Cuba.
“15 years in federal prison will never be enough to atone for the irreparable damage he did to our country,” Cuban-born Rep. Carlos Jimenez (R-Fla.) wrote in X .
The Justice Department did not charge Mr. Rocha with espionage, which would have carried heavier penalties.
