A former U.S. ambassador charged with working for decades as a secret agent in Cuba in one of the largest national security violations in recent years pleaded guilty Friday and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Manuel Rocha, 73, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States as a foreign agent and failure to register as a foreign agent as part of an agreement with the federal government. He also faces three years of supervised release and a $500,000 fine.
Mr. Rocha, wearing a beige prison uniform and dark glasses, confessed before being sentenced for “breach of the oath of allegiance to the United States during his 20 years at the State Department.”
“During my formative years at university, I was greatly influenced by the radical politics of the time,” said Rocha, who prosecutors claimed was recruited by Cuban intelligence in 1973. The eyes of my youth. ”
In handing down the sentence, Miami U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom said Rocha was recorded by an undercover FBI agent as recently as 2022 and 2023, demonstrating a “lack of loyalty to the United States.”
“You turned your back on your country,” she said. “The country that gave us everything”
The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Rocha shared secrets during his diplomatic career, including his interactions with the Cuban government, his time as ambassador to Bolivia, and his brief stint in the White House under President Bill Clinton. Not much has been made clear as to what.
In an unusual development, Judge Bloom expressed deep frustration with prosecutors for not seeking further punishment for Rocha, such as forfeiture of his assets. She asked the court to change the plea agreement and pressed prosecutors to provide details about when the government learned that Mr. Rocha had become an “enemy of the United States government.”
Prosecutors said details other than those disclosed in the indictment are confidential.
Rocha was indicted in December as an agent of a foreign government. He was also charged with fraud against the United States, wire fraud, and making false statements to obtain and use a U.S. passport.
Prosecutors dropped other charges as part of the plea agreement. The wire fraud charge carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Rocha last appeared in court in February, when he indicated he would change his earlier not guilty plea.
One of the prosecutors, Jonathan Douglas Stratton, said in court that Rocha's plea agreement forced him to share with the government a “complete and detailed damage assessment of the harm committed.”
“For a 73-and-a-half-year-old man, 15 years in prison is the equivalent of a life sentence,” Stratton said, adding, “It's extremely difficult for the defendant to not only plead guilty and admit to his criminal conduct, but to continue his sentence. It’s worth it,” he added. We are cooperating with the United States. ”
Before accepting the agreement, Judge Bloom asked prosecutors to include language that would make it clear that Rocha would continue to be liable for any harm caused by his actions.
“It is unacceptable that the United States is the only victim,” Judge Bloom said.
The judge also asked for language to be included that would not prevent the government from seeking civil denaturalization for Mr. Rocha, who was born in Colombia and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1978.
“This is important,” Rocha said. “I have made and will continue to make significant amends where necessary through my unconditional cooperation with those I betrayed.”
Two former U.S. officials convicted of spying for Cuba in previous high-profile cases also agreed to provide information to federal authorities as part of their plea deals.
After her 2001 arrest, former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Ana Belen Montes helped lead to the indictment of Marta Rita Velasquez, who worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Velasquez fled to Sweden after Montes' arrest. Her indictment against Velasquez was unsealed in 2013, but she remains a fugitive.
Montes was released last year.
In another high-profile case, former State Department official Walter Kendall Myers pleaded guilty in 2009 to spying for Cuba for decades. He is serving a life sentence. His wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, was also charged and sentenced to nearly seven years in prison.
The indictment against Rocha says he has supported the Cuban government since at least 1981. Federal prosecutors believe Mr. Rocha may have been scouted in Chile in 1981 by Cuban intelligence, which has had remarkable success in infiltrating U.S. national security agencies over the decades. 1970s. He was stationed at the U.S. mission in Havana in the 1990s.
The indictment does not detail Mr. Rocha's interactions with the Cuban government, nor does it accuse him of sharing specific secrets. He was also not charged with espionage.
“He is not charged with disseminating classified information,” Stratton said in court, but rather with “acting at the direction and control of the Cuban government.”
Mr. Rocha, who grew up in New York, worked on Latin American issues at the State Department under Mr. Clinton and President George W. Bush. He served as ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002 and as an advisor to U.S. military commands, including Cuba, from 2006 to 2012.
After leaving the government, he moved to Miami. His former colleagues said they watched in amazement as Mr. Rocha became a supporter of former President Donald J. Trump. The indictment has become a popular supporter of conservative politics, suggesting it may have been part of a cover-up for Mr. Rocha.