Having Worked at the White House to Serve as US Ambassador, This Cuban Spy Tricked Washington for 40 Years

Intelligence illustration. (Unsplash/Killian Cartignies)

JAKARTA - The United States on Monday indicted its former ambassador to Bolivia, accused of spying for Cuba for more than 40 years, in what the Justice Department described as one of the most extensive and long-running infiltrations by foreign agents against Washington.

The figure in question is Victor Manuel Rocha, US Ambassador to Bolivia in 2000-2002. Rocha, 73, was arrested and is expected to appear before a federal judge in Miami.

He was charged with multiple federal crimes, including acting as an illegal foreign agent and using a false passport, the Justice Department said in a statement.

"We allege that, for more than 40 years, Victor Manuel Rocha served as an agent of the Cuban government and sought and obtained positions in the United States government, which would have given him access to non-public information and the ability to influence U.S. foreign policy," the Attorney General said Merrick Garland in his statement, reported by Reuters, December 5.

Rocha worked at the State Department from 1981 to 2002, the Justice Department said.

He served on the White House National Security Council from 1994 to 1995, and worked as an adviser to the Commander of the US military's Southern Command from about 2006 to about 2012, the department added.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said he could not provide details about ongoing law enforcement issues.

"In the coming days, weeks, months, we will work closely with our partners in the intelligence community to assess the long-term national security implications of this issue," Miller said at a regular news conference.

In court documents filed in the southern district of Florida, the US accused Rocha of tacitly supporting Cuba and its secret intelligence-gathering missions against Washington since 1981.

Rocha admitted to decades of working for Cuba in a series of meetings in 2022 and 2023 with FBI agents posing as undercover representatives of Cuba's Directorate General of Intelligence, according to court documents.