Victor Manuel Rocha, who served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 and also acted as the U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, is under serious allegations of espionage. According to a press release by the U.S. Department of Justice, he has been accused of secretly supporting Cuba's intelligence-gathering mission against the U.S. since 1981.
According to this information released by the Department of Justice, Victor Manuel Rocha is not only a Colombian naturalized U.S. citizen but also a covert operative alleged to have worked in the U.S. Department of State from 1981 to 2002. He is suspected of accessing classified information and influencing U.S. foreign policy during his tenure. Rocha purportedly supported Cuba's intelligence services and served as an advisor to the Commander of the U.S. Southern Command between 2006 and 2012.
To maintain secrecy around his double agent status, it is believed that Rocha misled the American Government while committing several federal crimes in the process. The accused managed to safeguard himself and others involved in this scheme by providing false information to U.S., making frequent trips to Cuba for meetings with their intelligent operatives.
Rocha's duplicity came under further scrutiny when it was revealed during investigations that he possesses multiple United States passports along with one from the Dominican Republic.
According to details released later, undercover agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) posed as Cuban General Directorate of Intelligence representatives in order to gather more details from Rocha himself. During these meetings, Rocha would divulge extensive details about his history working with Cuba. In one such encounter, he claimed that he had been working as a double agent for over four decades and routinely referred to America as "the enemy."
Rocha now faces charges including conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General, acting as such an agent, and using a passport obtained by false statement.
FBI Director Christopher Wray expressed his severe disappointment at this breach of trust. "Like all federal officials, U.S. diplomats swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Acting as an agent for Cuba – a hostile foreign power – is a blatant violation of that oath and betrays the trust of the American people," said Wray. He further asserted that "the FBI will continue to rigorously defend against foreign governments targeting America, and we will find and hold accountable anyone who violates their oath to the United States, no matter how long it takes."
