For 50 years…
A former U.S. ambassador has received a potential life sentence for spying for Cuba for 50 years.
Victor Manuel Rocha, former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia and National Security Council member, pleaded guilty to working for Cuban intelligence on Friday. Rocha, 73, received a 15-year sentence in federal prison, the statutory maximum.
Rocha precipitously climbed the ranks of the foreign service, eventually serving as a member of the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 and as the U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002. After leaving the State Department, he joined Henry Kissinger's International Council on Terrorism and served as a special adviser to the U.S. military commander of SOUTHCOM.
All the while acting as a secret agent for the government of the Republic of Cuba. (RELATED: Putin's Revenge: ‘Kill Team' Behind Sonic Attacks)
“Today's plea and sentencing brings to an end more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by the defendant,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division said in a press release. “Rocha admitted to acting as an agent of the Cuban government at the same time he held numerous positions of trust in the U.S. government, a staggering betrayal of the American people and an acknowledgement that every oath he took to the United States was a lie.”
U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom accepted Rocha's guilty plea to counts 1 and 2 of the indictment, which charged him with conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiring to defraud the United States and acting as an agent of a foreign government without notice as required by law.
The court then sentenced Rocha to the statutory maximum penalty on his counts of conviction: 15 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, three years of supervised release and a special assessment. The court also imposed significant restrictions on Rocha.
Under the terms of the parties' plea agreement, Rocha must cooperate with the United States, including assisting with any damage assessment related to his work on behalf of the Republic of Cuba. Rocha must relinquish all future retirement benefits, including pension payments, owed to him by the United States based upon his former State Department employment. Rocha must also assign to the United States any profits that he may be entitled to receive in connection with any publication relating to his criminal conduct or his U.S. Government service.
“Despite swearing an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, Rocha betrayed the U.S. by secretly working as a Cuban agent for decades,” said Executive Assistant Director Larissa L. Knapp of the FBI's National Security Branch. “After years of lying and endangering national security and U.S. citizens, he finally accepted responsibility for his actions and received the maximum prison sentence. This should serve as a notice to our adversaries that the FBI will work tirelessly to stop foreign intelligence services and any who work with them against the interests of the United States and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”
In a video taken by an undercover agent, Rocha can be heard praising the late Fidel Castro, calling the United States the “enemy” and boasting about his prolific spy career.
As part of his guilty plea, Rocha admitted to being a covert agent of Cuba's General Directorate of Intelligence from 1973 until his arrest. Throughout that time, he provided classified information to Havana.
Rocha added that he was instructed by his Cuban handlers to “lead a normal life” and created a fictitious persona as a “right-wing person.”
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