A former American diplomat and State Department employee, Victor Manuel Rocha, has been accused of acting as a secret agent for Cuba after an undercover FBI agent allegedly caught Rocha admitting to working against "the enemy" United States for 40 years, court records obtained by Law&Crime show.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday that Rocha, who resides in Miami, Florida, has been a foreign agent of the Cuban government while serving on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 and later as U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002.
"We allege that for over 40 years, Victor Manuel Rocha ... sought out and obtained positions within the United States government that would provide him access to nonpublic information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy," Garland said.
In the newly public complaint detailing the charges, prosecutors say that from 1981 to 2002, Rocha had access to so-called "nonpublic information including classified information" while he worked at the State Department, though the complaint is otherwise largely devoid of details about how those efforts may have shaped U.S. foreign policy.
Prosecutors say he moved from role to role at State, serving as a secretary to the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in Dominic Republic and later, as the director of inter-American affairs for the National Security Council. He held other positions too including deputy chief of missions at the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires and then from November 1999 until roughly August 2022, he was the U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia.
At no time, prosecutors noted in the 20-page indictment, did Rocha have authorization, either directly or indirectly, to communicate U.S. secrets or sensitive information to any hostile nation, including Cuba. The U.S. has for years listed Cuba as a "state sponsor of international terrorism" and diplomatic tensions between the neighboring nations have been strained for nearly as long as Rocha, 73, has been alive.
"Rocha always kept his status as a Cuban agent secret in order to protect himself and others and to allow himself the opportunity to engage in additional clandestine activity," prosecutors allege.
The affidavit underlying his criminal complaint outlines some of the bold confessions and declarations prosecutors say Rocha made as he was being interviewed by an undercover FBI agent last November, as well as February and June this year.
The November meeting came after the FBI said it was tipped off for the first time about the former ambassador's activities.
The undercover agent said when they met, Rocha made efforts to hide the route he took to the meeting and observed Rocha checking out the meetup spot in advance, like any trained counterintelligence professional might.
Rocha would remark on this to the undercover agent later, saying he "received sufficient training to know that you have to be alert to provocations," the complaint states.
The undercover FBI agent also said that when he told Rocha he was going to set up a new "communication plan" for him and that he had a message to pass from his "friends in Havana," the former ambassador was delighted, though he chided the agent.
"I tend to say ‘The Island,'" he allegedly said. "I never use C or H."
"The Dirreción," or, Cuba's General Directorate of Intelligence, had told him to lead a "normal life" as he worked as a spy, Rocha is also accused of saying.
To do so, Rocha said he "created the legend of a right-wing person" to keep up the ruse, the complaint states.
Prosecutors say Rocha later admitted to going "little by little" and observing a meticulous, disciplined" process for his covert activities. He also regularly referred to the United States as "the enemy" and when using the term "we," used it in reference to himself and Cuba.
According to the affidavit, he told the agent: "I knew exactly how to do it and obviously the Dirreción accompanied me."
Rocha was arrested on Friday and is currently being held without bond. He is scheduled to appear in court next week.
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