Former Ambassador Will get 15-Yr Sentence for Performing as Cuban Agent

A former United States ambassador accused of working for many years as a undercover agent for Cuba in one of many greatest nationwide safety breaches in years pleaded responsible on Friday and was sentenced to fifteen years in jail.

Manuel Rocha, 73, pleaded responsible to 2 costs — conspiring to defraud the US as a overseas agent and failing to register as a overseas agent — as a part of an settlement with the federal authorities. He additionally faces three years of supervised launch, and a $500,000 nice.

Mr. Rocha, carrying a beige jail uniform and black glasses, conceded earlier than he was sentenced to the “betrayal of my oath of loyalty to the United States during my two decades in the State Department.”

“During my formative years in college, I was heavily influenced by the radical politics of the day,” mentioned Mr. Rocha, who prosecutors mentioned was recruited by Cuban intelligence brokers in 1973. “Today, I no longer see the world through the radical eyes of my youth.”

In imposing the sentence, Decide Beth Bloom of Federal District Courtroom in Miami mentioned that as just lately as 2022 and 2023 Mr. Rocha was recorded by an undercover F.B.I. agent displaying “a lack of allegiance of the United States.”

“You turned your back on the country,” she mentioned. “A country that gave you everything.”

The proceedings didn’t shed a lot mild on Mr. Rocha’s dealings with the Cuban authorities or whether or not he shared secrets and techniques throughout his diplomatic profession, which included serving as ambassador to Bolivia and briefly working in a White Home function underneath President Invoice Clinton.

In an uncommon flip of occasions, Decide Bloom expressed deep frustration with prosecutors for not in search of extra penalties for Mr. Rocha, akin to forfeiture of his belongings. She demanded adjustments to the plea deal from the bench and pressed prosecutors to disclose extra about when the federal government discovered that Mr. Rocha had grow to be “an enemy of the United States government.”

Prosecutors mentioned particulars past these made public within the indictment have been labeled.

“This case is a reminder that we face espionage and insider threats from a range of adversaries,” David Newman, the principal deputy assistant legal professional basic for nationwide safety on the Division of Justice, mentioned at a information convention in Miami — house to the nation’s largest inhabitants of Cuban exiles — after Mr. Rocha’s sentencing.

Mr. Rocha was charged in December with appearing as an agent of a overseas authorities; he was additionally charged with defrauding the US, wire fraud and making false statements to acquire and use an American passport.

Prosecutors dropped the opposite costs as a part of his plea settlement; the wire fraud cost had carried a 20-year most sentence. Mr. Rocha final appeared in court docket in February, when he indicated that he would change his earlier plea of not responsible.

Mr. Rocha’s plea deal compelled him to share with the federal government “a full, detailed damage assessment of that harm that was committed,” Jonathan Douglas Stratton, one of many prosecutors, mentioned in court docket.

“Fifteen years for an individual who is 73 and a half years old is tantamount to a life sentence,” Mr. Stratton mentioned, including that “it was incredibly valuable to have the defendant not only plead guilty and admit his criminal conduct but to continue cooperating with the United States.”

Earlier than accepting the settlement, Decide Bloom required prosecutors to incorporate language making clear that Mr. Rocha remained responsible for restitution ought to any victims of his actions emerge.

“I can’t accept that the victim is only the United States,” Decide Bloom mentioned.

The decide additionally pushed to incorporate language saying that the settlement didn’t preclude the federal government from pursuing civil denaturalization in opposition to Mr. Rocha, who was born in Colombia and have become a naturalized American citizen in 1978.

As Mr. Rocha spoke in court docket, his spouse, youngsters and different kin watched from the second row.

“I am making and will continue to make, as required, significant amends throughout my unconditional collaboration to those I have betrayed,” Mr. Rocha mentioned.

Two former American officers convicted of spying for Cuba in previous high-profile circumstances additionally agreed to offer data to federal authorities as a part of their plea agreements.

The cooperation of Ana Belén Montes, a former analyst on the Protection Intelligence Company, following her arrest in 2001, led to the charging of Marta Rita Velazquez, who labored on the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth. Ms. Velazquez fled to Sweden after Ms. Montes’s arrest; an indictment in opposition to Ms. Velazquez was unsealed in 2013, however she stays a fugitive.

Ms. Montes was launched final yr.

In one other main case, Walter Kendall Myers, a former State Division official, pleaded guilty in 2009 to spying for Cuba for many years. He’s serving a life sentence. His spouse, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, was also charged and sentenced to almost seven years in jail.

The indictment in opposition to Mr. Rocha mentioned that he had aided the Cuban authorities, whose intelligence company has had notable success in infiltrating the U.S. nationwide safety institution over the a long time, since no less than 1981. He was posted on the U.S. mission in Havana through the Nineties.

The indictment didn’t element Mr. Rocha’s interactions with the Cuban authorities or accuse him of sharing particular secrets and techniques. It additionally didn’t cost him with espionage, which Mr. Newman attributed partly to the unusually lengthy time frame that has handed since Mr. Rocha final labored in authorities and had entry to labeled data.

Raised in New York, Mr. Rocha worked within the State Division underneath Mr. Clinton and President George W. Bush on issues associated to Latin America. He served as ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002 and as an adviser to the U.S. army command that features Cuba from 2006 to 2012.

After leaving authorities, he moved to Miami. Former colleagues said they had watched in astonishment as Mr. Rocha turned a supporter of former President Donald J. Trump — an embrace of conservative politics that the indictment prompt might have been a part of an effort to cowl his tracks.