Rocha, a former US ambassador to Bolivia and member of the National Security Council, admitted to decades of working as an agent of the Cuban government, according to the Justice Department.
A federal judge sentenced Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, of Miami, to 15 years in prison for decades of working against the US government on behalf of communist Cuba in "secret intelligence-gathering missions."
Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division said, "Today's plea and sentence brings to an end more than four decades of treason and deception by the defendant. Rocha admitted that he acted as an agent of the Cuban government while also holding numerous positions in the U.S. government, that he committed an astonishing betrayal of the American people, and that every oath he made to the United States was a lie."
"HE THOUGHT HE WAS SO SMART"
Rocha was a former US State Department employee who served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 and as US Ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002.
Speaking about the case, Florida US Attorney Markenzy Lapointe said, "For decades, Victor Manuel Rocha secretly acted as an agent of a hostile foreign power. He thought the story of his secret mission to Cuba would never be told because he had the intelligence, knowledge and discipline to never be detected. Rocha underestimated these things.The prosecutors and law enforcement officials who worked tirelessly to bring him to justice for betraying his oath to this country have the same skills."
U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom announced that Rocha had pleaded guilty to the indictment's charges of acting as an agent of a foreign government, conspiracy to deceive U.S. authorities, and acting as an agent of a foreign government without authorization.
The court then sentenced Rocha to 15 years in prison, a $500,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
