Victor Manuel Rocha, the former U.S. ambassador who is accused of being a covert agent for Cuba’s intelligence services, is a career diplomat who once served in the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba.
Rocha, 73, was the deputy principal officer in Havana when the US lacked full diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro’s communist government, according to an archived profile on the U.S. State Department’s website.
Rocha, who lives in Miami, is alleged to have engaged in "clandestine activity" for Cuba since at least 1981, the Justice Department said in a press release. Court papers accuse him of meeting with Cuban intelligence operatives and providing false information to U.S. government officials about his travels and contacts.
“We allege that for over 40 years, Victor Manuel Rocha served as an agent of the Cuban government and sought out and obtained positions within the United States government that would provide him with access to non-public information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy," U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.
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Rocha was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia in 2000, and remained in the position until 2002. From 1997 until his appointment in Bolivia, he was charge d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires.
In addition to his work in Havana, he was director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council in Washington, D.C., the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and the deputy political counselor for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.
He began his career with the State Department as a desk officer for Honduras in 1981. He went on to be named political officer for the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo, watch officer in the Operations Center of the State Department, a consul for Political and Economic Affairs for the U.S. Consulate in Florence, Italy, and politico-military officer for the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
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Rocha, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Colombia, is a 1973 graduate of Yale University. He received a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University in 1976 and a master’s degree in international relations from Georgetown University in 1978.
The Justice Department alleges his ties with Cuba’s intelligence services began in 1981, when he joined the State Department, and continued after he left the federal government.
After his State Department employment ended, Rocha engaged in other acts intended to support Cuba’s intelligence services, the Justice Department alleges. From in or around 2006 until in or around 2012, Rocha was an advisor to the Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, a joint command of the United States military whose area of responsibility includes Cuba.
His wife hung up when contacted by the Associated Press. A law firm where he previously worked told the AP it was not representing him.
