SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- Manuel Rocha, a retired former U.S. diplomat, said Thursday that he will plead guilty to serving as a secret agent for Cuba for decades, sealing a case that prosecutors described as one of the greatest betrayals in history. The history of the American foreign service.
Rocha, 73, told a federal judge that he would plead guilty to two federal counts of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, which carry a maximum penalty of five to 10 years in prison each. In exchange, the prosecutor’s office agreed to drop another 13 charges for crimes such as wire fraud and false statements, reported The Associated Press.
His lawyer said prosecutors had agreed on a sentence, but it was not announced in court. Rocha is expected to appear in court again on April 12.
“I agree,” Rocha said, in shackles on his hands and ankles, when Judge Beth Bloom asked him if he wanted to change his plea to guilty, according to the report. AP.
His guilty plea came a few hours after the widow of prominent Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, who died in a mysterious car accident, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the former diplomat. The lawsuit accuses Rocha of sharing information that encouraged Cuban communist leaders to assassinate a prominent opponent.
The Rocha case
Prosecutors alleged in December that the former ambassador, a longtime State Department employee who served on the National Security Council and was a U.S. diplomat in Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, spied on the United States for more than 40 years as an agent for Cuba.
The “clandestine activities” in favor of Cuba date back to at least 1981, when he joined the US foreign service, according to information shared by the authorities of that country.
Among other things, he would have met with Cuban intelligence agents and provided false information to US government officials about his contacts.
Federal authorities have said little about what exactly Rocha did to help Cuba while he worked at the State Department for two decades in posts in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico and the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
The case relies heavily on what prosecutors say were Rocha’s own confessions, made last year to an undercover FBI agent posing as a Cuban intelligence agent named “Miguel.”
In those recordings, Rocha praised the dictator Fidel Castro, called the United States an “enemy” and boasted of his services for more than 40 years as a Cuban mole at the heart of United States foreign policy circles.
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2024-03-03 05:46:52
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