{"id":2694,"date":"2024-04-13T04:08:31","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T04:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=2694"},"modified":"2024-04-13T04:08:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T04:08:31","slug":"former-us-diplomat-sentenced-to-15-years-in-prison-after-pleading-guilty-to-spying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=2694","title":{"rendered":"Former US diplomat sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to spying"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 45 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

Manuel Rocha, the former US ambassador to Bolivia who\u00a0acted as a\u00a0secret\u00a0foreign agent\u00a0of\u00a0Cuba<\/a>, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges Friday \u2013 a judge telling him, \u201cyou turned your back on this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rocha, 73,\u00a0pleaded guilty in Miami to one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and defrauding the United States. He also pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government without notice to the US government.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have alleged<\/a>\u00a0the former American diplomat acted as a \u201ccovert agent of Cuba\u2019s intelligence services\u201d for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take full responsibility,\u201d Rocha said.<\/p>\n

He also told family and friends he was \u201cdeeply sorry\u201d for his actions.<\/p>\n

Judge Beth Bloom told the defendant: \u201cYou turned your back on this country over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bloom sentenced Rocha 5 years for conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and 10 years for acting as a foreign agent to be served consecutively.<\/p>\n

Charges for lying to investigators and wire fraud were dropped under the plea agreement.<\/p>\n

During the three-and-a-half hour\u00a0hearing Bloom suggested prosecutors had not done enough to investigate possible victims. The US government is the only victim, federal prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 53 years, information was provided,\u201d Bloom\u00a0told prosecutors.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t know if there are victims. I don\u2019t know if you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bloom also asked prosecutors why Rocha, a naturalized US citizen from Colombia, was not stripped of his citizenship. Rocha pledged allegiance to the US during a naturalization ceremony in the 1970s while working for an enemy of the state, Bloom said.<\/p>\n

Rocha\u2019s citizenship is a \u201cbenefit, a privilege, an honor\u201d that was obtained by \u201cfraud,\u201d Bloom said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy was that not important to the United States?\u201d she asked prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Assistant US Attorney Jonathan D. Stratton said the government considered stripping his citizenship but prioritized that Rocha admit his guilt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not making concessions or foregoing the civil division going after denaturalization as part of its case. We are just not mandating it,\u201d Stratton said.<\/p>\n

At Rocha\u2019s age, Stratton noted, a 15-year term is tantamount to a life sentence, with little benefit to stripping him of his citizenship when he\u2019s 88.<\/p>\n

The plea agreement was then updated to include that the government may seek to denaturalize Rocha in a civil proceeding. It also leaves open a window for newly identified witnesses to seek restitution<\/p>\n

At a hearing in Miami in\u00a0February,\u00a0Rocha\u00a0announced his intention to plead guilty, according to the court docket.\u00a0Rocha\u00a0had\u00a0pleaded not guilty\u00a0to all charges\u00a0earlier that month.<\/p>\n

Rocha referred to US as \u2018the enemy\u2019<\/h2>\n

Manuel Rocha, appears during an interview with an FBI undercover employee in Miami, in an undated still image from video contained in a US Justice Department indictment.\u00a0U.S. District Court\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Rocha served as the US ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002 and as the deputy principal officer of the US Interests Section in Cuba in the 1990s. He also worked for the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic in the 1980s as well as the US Consulate in Italy, and he served in different roles for US embassies in Mexico and Argentina.<\/p>\n

His role as the political officer at the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic gave him \u201cspecial responsibility\u201d for Cuba, prosecutors alleged.<\/p>\n

Rocha described being \u201cin charge\u201d of what he called the \u201cknock down of the small planes\u201d \u2013 which prosecutors believe to be an incident during Rocha\u2019s tenure working for the State Department in Havana when Cuba shot down two unarmed airplanes operated by members of Brothers to the Rescue, a US-based group opposed to Castro\u2019s government, killing four men.<\/p>\n

In several meetings with an undercover FBI employee posing as a member of Cuban intelligence, Rocha repeatedly referred to the US as \u201cthe enemy\u201d and praised Cuban revolutionary and politician Fidel Castro, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy number one concern; my number one priority was \u2026 any action on the part of Washington that would \u2013 would endanger the life of \u2013 of the leadership, or the \u2013 or the revolution itself,\u201d Rocha allegedly told an FBI undercover employee, according to a recording of a meeting cited in court documents.<\/p>\n

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Manuel Rocha, the former US ambassador to Bolivia who\u00a0acted as a\u00a0secret\u00a0foreign agent\u00a0of\u00a0Cuba, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges Friday \u2013 a judge telling… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}