The depth of the United States infiltration by communist operatives is a grim reality that hasn’t even begun to be scratched.
But if the tale of the former US ambassador to Bolivia is any indication, it’s even deeper than we may suspect.
Hidden in plain sight during the Bill Clinton administration, Victor Manuel Rocha held several high-ranking posts in embassies around the world, and even worked at the White House.
His more than 20 years in ‘public service’ were actually in the service of the Cuban Communist dictatorship.
Rocha is a Colombian-born us career diplomat, and he always portrayed himself as a ‘Cuba hardliner’, someone opposed to the Fidel Castro regime, his real secret master.
Now, the former ambassador to Bolivia has been sentenced to 15 years in Federal prison.
New York Post reported:
“Miami-based US District Judge Beth Bloom accepted Victor Manuel Rocha’s guilty plea on two counts, including acting as an agent of a foreign government, before handing down his decade-and-a-half-long sentence and a $500,000 fine, the maximum penalty allowed.”
After four decades serving Cuba in a mission that he described as ‘enormous’, and that ‘strengthened the Revolution immensely’, Rocha was indicted last December.
Attorney General Merrick Garland described the case as ‘one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the US government by a foreign agent’ – we may add ‘that we know of so far’.
“’Today’s plea and sentencing brings to an end more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by the defendant’, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said Friday.
‘Rocha admitted to acting as an agent of the Cuban government at the same time he held numerous positions of trust in the U.S. government, a staggering betrayal of the American people and an acknowledgement that every oath he took to the United States was a lie’, the Justice Department official added.”
After leaving the State Department, Rocha continued to spy, this time as an advisor to the US Southern Command, whose area of responsibility includes Cuba.
According to the Department of Justice, the spy gained access to nonpublic and classified information – and worse, developed the ability to affect US foreign policy.
“Rocha admitted that his involvement with Cuba’s intelligence service began in 1973 and continued until the time of his arrest – spanning his entire career in government.”
“He was arrested after a series of meetings with undercover FBI agents posing as Cuban intelligence officials, during which Rocha acknowledged the “decades” of spying he had done on behalf of Cuba, spanning “40 years.” Rocha referred to the US as “the enemy” and praised the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro during his meetings with the undercover FBI agents, according to the DOJ.”
The DOJ did not charge Rocha with espionage, a crime that is harder to prove but that would’ve carried a stiffer sentence.
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