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An FBI stamp is seen on a wall, August 2022, in Omaha, Nebraska. A former U. S. diplomat who served as U. S. ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested as part of a long-running FBI counterintelligence investigation, accused of secretly serving as an agent for Cuba. The Associated Press found out.
MIAMI, >> A former American diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Bolivia has been accused of serving as an undercover agent for Cuban intelligence for decades, the Department of Justice reported today.
Newly released court documents allege that Manuel Rocha has engaged in “clandestine activities” on behalf of Cuba since at least 1981, including meetings with Cuban intelligence agents and providing false information to the U. S. government about his travels and contacts.
The complaint, filed in Miami federal court, accuses Rocha of crimes such as acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, and provides a startling analysis of what U. S. officials see as long-standing efforts through Cuba and its notoriously complicated intelligence to target government officials. who can be overthrown.
Rocha, 73, who was arrested Friday at his Miami home, will appear in court later in the day and will not immediately clarify whether he has an attorney.
During his two-decade career as a U. S. diplomat, he held positions in Bolivia, Argentina, and the U. S. Interests Section in Havana in the mid-1990s. The Justice Department did not disclose how Rocha came to the attention of Cuban intelligence agents here or detail what data he might have provided while in government.
The indictment points to Rocha’s illegal ties to Cuba dating back to 1981, when he joined the State Department, long after he had left the federal government, when he held lucrative jobs in the personal sector, most recently as a senior trade adviser to a foreign organization. public signature.
The FBI became aware of the appointments last year and arranged a series of secret meetings in downtown Miami between Rocha and the man who claimed to be a Cuban intelligence agent.
During one of those meetings, according to the affidavit, Rocha said that government intelligence had asked him to “lead a general life” and that he had created the “legend” or synthetic persona of “a right-wing person. “
“I’ve been like, ‘The only thing that can jeopardize everything we’ve done is . . . someone’s betrayal, someone who possibly would have known me, someone who possibly would have known something at some point,'” Rocha said, according to the billing document.
In another meeting last year, Rocha referred to Cuba shooting down two unarmed planes sent by the Miami-based group of exiles Brothers to the Rescue in which four opponents of Castro’s government were killed in 1996.
There is no indication in the allegation that Rocha aided the Cubans in the army’s operation, a major flashpoint in more than a century’s share of the near-gulf that exists between the communist-ruled island and its warring right-wing parties in Miami. At the time, he was a senior political official at the U. S. Special Interests Section in Havana.
“I went through this because I was in charge,” Rocha said. It’s a very tense time. “
Born in Colombia, Rocha grew up in a working-class home in New York City and earned liberal arts degrees at Yale, Harvard, and Georgetown before joining the Foreign Service in 1981.
He was the most level-headed U. S. diplomat in Argentina between 1997 and 2000, when a decade-long financial stabilization program backed by Washington collapsed under the weight of huge foreign debt and stagnant growth, triggering a political crisis that would see the South American country go through five years. presidents in the year 2000. Two weeks.
In his next post as ambassador to Bolivia, he weighed in on the 2002 presidential race, warning weeks before the vote that the United States would cut off aid to the impoverished South American country if it elected former coca grower Evo Morales.
“I need to remind the Bolivian electorate that if they vote for those who need Bolivia to start exporting cocaine again, it will seriously jeopardize any long-term U. S. assistance to Bolivia,” Rocha said in a speech that was widely interpreted as an attempt. maintain U. S. dominance in the region.
This ploy infuriated Bolivians and gave Morales a last-minute boost. When, despite everything, he was elected three years later, the leftist leader expelled Rocha’s successor from the post of head of the diplomatic project for inciting “civil war”.
Rocha has also served in Italy, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and has served as a Latin American representative to the National Security Council.
After his retirement from the State Department, Rocha began a second career in business, serving as the president of a gold mine in the Dominican Republic partly owned by Canada’s Barrick Gold.
Most recently, he held leadership positions at XCoal, a Pennsylvania-based coal exporter; Clover Leaf Capital, a company created to facilitate mergers in the hashish industry; Foley Law Firm
John Feeley, who ended a long diplomatic career as U. S. ambassador to Panama, said he was “saddened and shocked that my former mentor turned out to be a career Cuban mole. “
Feeley, who retired from the State Department over differences with President Donald Trump’s administration, said the last time he saw Rocha he was surprised to see how a diplomat who had served in administrations of both parties had so completely embraced Trump’s policies.
“It’s beyond ironic that I cultivated this cartoonish character and that everyone bought into it,” he said.
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