Former United States ambassador Víctor Manuel Rocha was sentenced this Friday in a federal court in Miami (Florida) to 15 years in a federal prison for charges related to espionage for Cuba for 40 years after pleading “guilty” today, as announced his defense last February.
Rocha, 73, who served as US ambassador to several Latin American countries, will also pay a $500,000 fine and cooperate with authorities under a plea agreement.
He was charged with one count of “acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government (Cuba)” and another for conspiracy to commit the same crime and “defraud the United States.”
He was also charged with five counts of wire fraud, three for “making a false statement in a passport application,” four for “use of a passport obtained by false statement” and one for “false statements and representations,” according to the document. of the accusation.
In general, he is accused of “acting secretly for decades as an agent of the Government of the Republic of Cuba,” according to the US Government's accusation.
The former diplomat of Colombian origin, arrested in Miami last December, was sentenced by Judge Beth Bloom during a hearing this Friday afternoon, after pleading guilty.
Initially the former ambassador
had pleaded not guilty
to the charges against him.
Rocha was arrested in Miami on December 1 after confessing his activities to an FBI agent who posed as a Cuban spy.
Between 1981 and 2002, Rocha was an employee of the United States Department of State and
held various positions
in the United States embassies in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Argentina and Bolivia.
According to the indictment, between 2022 and 2023 there were three meetings between Rocha and an FBI special agent who pretended to be 'Miguel', a representative of the General Directorate of Intelligence of Cuba.
In these meetings, which were recorded and held in Spanish, the former diplomat constantly referred to the United States as “the enemy” and confessed that his greatest concern when he worked for the State Department was “strengthening the Cuban Revolution.”
Rocha's prestigious career included stays as ambassador to Bolivia and senior positions in Argentina, Mexico, the White House and the United States Interests Section in Havana.
In 1973, the year he graduated from Yale, Rocha traveled to Chile, where, according to prosecutors, he became a “great friend” of Cuba's General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI).
Rocha's post-government career included time as a special advisor to the commander of the United States Southern Command and, more recently, as
a supporter of Donald Trump and hardliners toward Cuba
, a persona that friends and prosecutors said Rocha adopted to hide his true loyalties.
With information from EFE and
The Associated Press