73-year-old Manuel Rocha was arrested in December. After a year of investigation, the FBI concluded that the former ambassador was in fact a Cuban spy. The American media wrote that yesterday Rocha actually admitted that he was guilty and worked as a foreign agent.
Rocha has worked for the Cuban intelligence services since 1981. From that year until 2002 he worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Important features
The Colombian-born American has risen to the top of American politics in recent decades. He was US Ambassador to Bolivia (2000-2002) and served on the National Security Council (1994-1995), in which role he was also responsible for Cuba. He also served in the embassies of the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Italy and Mexico.
After leaving the State Department, he supervised US military operations (2006-2012) in an area that includes Cuba.
It is not clear exactly what secrets he conveyed to Cuba. The FBI said in December that it began investigating Rocha through an anonymous tip in 2022. An undercover intelligence agent posed as a Cuban spy and contacted Rocha.
United States “enemy”
Rocha told this undercover FBI agent that he called the United States “the enemy.” To avoid being discovered, he pretended to be a conservative politician. In his contacts with Cuba, he was only allowed to talk about “the island.”
Rocha's former colleagues said Washington Post They were surprised when they heard that the ambassador was suspected of espionage. He was charismatic and ambitious. “I could not have imagined this in my wildest dreams,” said a former colleague.
Rocha faces ten years in prison on espionage charges.
