(CNN) –– Manuel Rocha, the former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States by acting as an agent of a foreign government. He also took responsibility in office for acting as an illegal agent of another country without notifying the US government.
“I take full responsibility,” Rocha said. He also apologized to his family and friends for his actions. “I am deeply sorry,” he added.
Prosecutors accused Rocha, 73, of working for decades as an undercover agent for “Cuban's intelligence services” in December 2023. During a hearing in Miami in February, Rocha announced his intention to plead guilty, according to court records. Rocha pleaded not guilty to all charges he faced earlier that month.
“You came back to this country again and again”
Judge Beth Bloom sentenced Rocha to a total of 15 years in prison: 5 years on the conspiracy charge and 10 years on the charge of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, to run consecutively. Bloom was fined $250,000 for each count. Additionally, Rocha faces three years of supervised release for each charge. This is the maximum penalty allowed by law. “You have turned this country over and over again,” the judge told Rocha.
As part of Rocha's plea deal, earlier charges of lying to investigators and wire fraud were dropped.
The trial of Manuel Rocha. (Credit: Lothar Speer)
During a three-and-a-half-hour hearing in federal court in Miami, Rocha pleaded guilty and agreed to pay restitution.
However, the judge found that prosecutors did not do enough to investigate the victims. Prosecutors have repeatedly said that the US government is the only victim in this case.
“The information has been given for 53 years,” Judge Bloom told the lawyers. “I don't know if there are victims. “I don't know if you know.”
The trial of Manuel Rocha. (Credit: Lothar Speer)
Rocha served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002 and as deputy director of the U.S. Interests Division in Cuba in the 1990s. Rocha also served at the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic in the 1990s. The Embassy in Italy performed various functions for the US Embassies in Mexico and Argentina.
Bloom wanted to know why Rocha, a natural-born American from Colombia, was not stripped of his U.S. citizenship.The judge accused him of swearing allegiance to the United States during a naturalization ceremony when he worked in the 1970s. Enemy of the state. He called Rocha's citizenship a “favor, privilege, honor” obtained through “fraud.” Bloom said Rocha obtained a passport while working as a spy for Cuba to deceive the United States. “Why isn't that important to America?” he asked the lawyers.
Lawyer Jonathan D. Stratton said the US government had considered stripping Rocha of his citizenship but preferred Rocha to plead guilty. “We're not going to give up or leave the civil division that continues denaturalization as part of its case. We're not asking for that,” he said.
Given Rocha's age, Stratton said a 15-year sentence was equivalent to a life sentence, and stripping him of his citizenship at age 88 would have little effect.
The trial ended with an updated plea agreement that included new language that leaves a window open for newly identified witnesses to seek relief from Rocha and the government could try to default on Rocha in a civil action.
Case against Rosa
The former U.S. diplomat “covertly supported the Republic of Cuba and its covert intelligence-gathering mission against the United States by serving as an undercover agent for Cuba's intelligence services,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment last December.
In several meetings with an undercover FBI agent posing as a member of Cuban intelligence, Rocha repeatedly referred to the United States as the “enemy” and praised Cuban revolutionary and politician Fidel Castro, according to court documents from the time.
Rocha said he was “responsible” for what he described as “shooting down small planes,” which prosecutors believe refers to an incident in which Cuba shot down two unarmed planes during Rocha's tenure at the State Department in Havana. By members of Brothers to the Rescue, a US-based group opposed to the Castro government. Four men died in the episode.
In the indictment, prosecutors say the Cuban government worked for years to recruit people into the United States to help gather intelligence, including inside the U.S. government.
As a State Department employee, the former diplomat had “unique” access to government information that was not public, prosecutors said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said at the time that the case against Rocha “exposes one of the longest and longest-running infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent.”
