Former U.S. Ambassador and National Security Council
Official Admits to Secretly Acting as Agent of the Cuban Government and
Receives 15-Year Sentence
Office of Public Affairs
Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, of Miami, a former U.S. Department
of State employee who served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995
and as U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, pleaded guilty today to
secretly acting for decades as an agent of the government of the Republic of
Cuba. Immediately thereafter, a federal judge sentenced Rocha to the statutory
maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
“Today’s plea and sentencing brings to an end more than four
decades of betrayal and deceit by the defendant,” said Assistant Attorney
General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security
Division. “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."
“Victor Manuel Rocha secretly acted for decades as an agent
of a hostile foreign power. He thought the story of his covert mission for
U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom accepted Rocha’s guilty
plea to counts 1 and 2 of the indictment, which charged him with conspiring to
act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiring to defraud the United
States and acting as an agent of a foreign government without notice as
required by law.
The court then sentenced Rocha to the statutory maximum
penalty on his counts of conviction: 15 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, three
years of supervised release and a special assessment. The court also imposed
significant restrictions on Rocha.
Under the terms of the parties’ plea agreement, Rocha must
cooperate with the
“Despite swearing an oath to defend the Constitution of the
United States, Rocha betrayed the U.S. by secretly working as a Cuban agent for
decades,” said Executive Assistant Director Larissa L. Knapp of the FBI’s
National Security Branch. “After years of lying and endangering national
security and
“Victor Manuel Rocha was sentenced to 15 years in prison
today for deceiving our nation,” said Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri
of the FBI Miami Field Office. “He blatantly violated the oath of office he
willingly took as an employee of the State Department and disregarded the
loyalty to the
“The investigation of this crime demonstrates the sustained
threat from hostile intelligence services,” said Assistant Director for
Domestic Operations Andrew Wroblewski of the U.S. Department of State’s
Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). “Today’s guilty plea and sentencing are
another example of our commitment to successfully work together with our
federal law enforcement partners in the pursuit of those who compromise the
security of the
In pleading guilty, Rocha admitted that, beginning in 1973,
and continuing to the time of his arrest, he secretly supported the
By his own admission, to further that role, Rocha obtained
employment at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked between 1981 and
2002, in positions that provided him access to nonpublic information, including
classified information, and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy. Aside
from serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia and on the White House National
Security Council, Rocha’s career included a stint as Deputy Principal Secretary
of the State Department’s U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba from 1995-97.
After his State Department employment ended, Rocha engaged in other acts
intended to support
Rocha kept his status as a Cuban agent secret to protect himself and others and to allow himself the opportunity to
engage in additional clandestine activity. Rocha provided false and misleading
information to the
In a series of meetings during 2022 and 2023, with an
undercover FBI agent posing as a covert Cuban General Directorate of
Intelligence representative, Rocha made repeated statements admitting his
“decades” of work for
The FBI Miami Field Office investigated the case, with
valuable contributions by the FBI Washington Field Office and the
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan D. Stratton and John C.
Shipley for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorneys Heather M.
Schmidt and Christine A. Bonomo of the National Security Division’s
Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the case.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or
visit tips.fbi.gov.
Updated