DOJ: Former U.S. diplomat was a secret agent for the Cuban government for decades

A former U.S. diplomat and ambassador to Bolivia has been charged with working for more than four decades as a secret agent for the Cuban government, according to the Justice Department.

Manuel Rocha, who was arrested Friday in Miami and appeared in federal court on Monday, is accused of "serving as a covert agent" to support the Republic of Cuba's "clandestine intelligence-gathering mission against the United States," a complaint filed in U.S. District Court states.

Investigators say Rocha, 73, provided the U.S. with false and misleading information "to protect his secret mission"; traveled outside the U.S. to meet with Cuban intelligence operatives; and made false statements to obtain travel documents, a complaint filed on Monday alleges.

Investigators claim Rocha did not notify the the U.S. attorney general or the secretary of state that he was working on behalf of Cuba’s General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI) – a violation of federal law. They also accuse Rocha of seeking positions within the U.S. government, and eventually using them, to affect foreign policy.

Rocha, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Colombia, faces the following charges: conspiracy to act as agent of a foreign government, acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and use of a passport obtained by a false statement, according to records filed in federal court.

Rocha's efforts to aid the Cuban government began when he started working for the State Department in 1981, investigators say. Rocha served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 and was the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer as of Monday afternoon.

"This action exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Monday.

“Those who have the privilege of serving in the government of the United States are given an enormous amount of trust by the public we serve. To betray that trust by falsely pledging loyalty to the United States while serving a foreign power is a crime that will be met with the full force of the Justice Department.”

Undercover FBI agent met with Rocha three times

Sometime around November of last year, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation received information that Rocha was a covert agent for the DGI. Two weeks after receiving the tip, an undercover FBI agent messaged Rocha on WhatsApp, saying he was "representing your friends in Havana." Soon the agent scheduled a time to meet the retired diplomat in front of a church in the Brickell neighborhood in Miami.

Rocha, in total, met with the undercover FBI agent three times between November 2022 and June of this year. The conversations, which were in Spanish and then translated to English, were audio and video recorded.

During the meetings, Rocha referred to the United States as "the enemy" and praised Fidel Castro as "the commander," investigators said. He described his work as a Cuban agent as “a grand slam." And details about his clandestine operations were later confirmed by investigators.

For example, in his first conversation with the undercover FBI agent, Rocha mentioned an incident while he "was in charge" as "the knock down of the small planes" and said it as a time of great tension between Cuba and the U.S. government.

The FBI alleges that the incident Rocha was referring to happened in February 1996 when four men died after Cuba shot down two unarmed airplanes operated by members of Brothers to the Rescue, a U.S.-based group opposed to Castro's government, court records say.

From 1995 to 1997, Rocha worked for the U.S. Department of State as an officer for the United States Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Havana, Cuba – the official representative of the U.S. government in Cuba.

"The audio and video-recorded conversations summarized above in themselves establish unequivocally that ROCHA, in his own words, has acted for decades as a covert agent of the DGI," the complaint states.

Rocha lied repeatedly to state department agents, complaint says

Also during his initial meeting with the FBI agent, Rocha "admitted" to traveling to Cuba in 2016 and 2017 to meet with DGI handlers in Havana, according to court records. Rocha told the agent that he traveled into Cuba via Panama "as a Dominican." Investigators said they corroborated the information through travel records.

On Friday, Rocha participated in a voluntary interview with agents from the Department of State. During the interview, Rocha "lied repeatedly," denying ever meeting someone with the FBI agent's description, even after being shown a photo of the agent.

After the State Department agents showed Rocha a photo they had of him sitting across from the FBI agent, he said the undercover agent approached him only once. When the interviewers said they had information that there was more than one meeting, Rocha stated "he did not want to comment."

“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 FBI Director Christopher Wray in a statement Monday.

Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

Christopher Cann is a breaking news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him via email at [email protected] or follow him on X @ChrisCannFL.