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OAN\u2019s\u00a0Abril Elfi<\/a> A former career U.S. diplomat and former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia who admitted to a judge that he spied for Cuba for decades will plead guilty to his charges. <\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n On Thursday, Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, admitted to spying for Cuba and told the judge that he \u201cintends to plead guilty to federal charges.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Rocha was first indicted in December of last year on charges accusing him of being a spy for Cuba\u2019s intelligence agency for decades. During the hearing, Rocha said that he would agree to plead guilty to two charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government.\u00a0<\/p>\n Regarding his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop over a dozen additional charges, according to AP News<\/em>. <\/p>\n The maximum sentence for the two counts is five to ten years in prison. When the judge asked Rocha if he wanted to change his plea, he said, \u201cI am in agreement.\u201d\u00a0Following the hearing, his intention to modify his plea was noted on the case docket. Rocha\u2019s next court date is April 12th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Investigators said that in 1973, Rocha was enlisted in Chile by the Directorate of Intelligence, the spy organization of Cuba. Prosecutors claim that the intelligence service told him to fabricate a story in order to hide his \u201cdouble life.\u201d <\/p>\n Attorney General Merrick Garland described the case as \u201cone of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign agent.\u201d\u00a0He also stated that Rocha pursued U.S. government jobs that \u201cwould provide him with access to non-public information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy.\u201d<\/p>\n The kind of information Rocha might have divulged to Cuba or how he could have influenced U.S. policy has not been publicly released. <\/p>\n The retired diplomat had believed that the undercover FBI agent who set up meetings with him was a representative of Cuba\u2019s spy agency, and Rocha had at least three separate meetings with the disguised agent. He referred to the U.S. as \u201cthe enemy\u201d and said \u201cwhat we have done\u201d was \u201cenormous\u201d and \u201cmore than a grand slam,\u201d according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n \u201cMy number one concern; my number one priority was \u2026 any action on the part of Washington that would endanger the life of the leadership, or the revolution itself,\u201d Rocha allegedly told the undercover agent.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Being born in Colombia, Rocha obtained U.S. citizenship through naturalization in 1978. He began working for the State Department in 1981 and held a number of positions in Latin America for more than 20 years, including ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002. He had jurisdiction over Cuba while working as the National Security Council\u2019s director for inter-American affairs and as the deputy principal officer of the American embassy in Havana. Following his departure from the State Department, he served as an advisor to the commander of the U.S. Southern Command, which surrounds Cuba.<\/p>\n Rocha\u2019s employment with the U.S. government overlapped with that of Ana Montes, a former Defense Intelligence Agency Analyst who spent 20 years in prison for spying for Cuba before she was released in 2023. Montes was <\/strong>recruited by Cuban intelligence in 1984 before she was hired by the Defense Intelligence Agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n In one of his meetings with the undercover FBI agent, prosecutors said Rocha praised a U.S. government employee who had spied for Cuba, saying she \u201cwas betrayed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here.\u00a0https:\/\/www.oann.com\/alerts<\/a><\/p>\n
6:18 PM \u2013 Thursday, February 29, 2024<\/p>\n\n