US diplomat turned Cuban spy jailed for 15 years
An ex-career diplomat who once served as US ambassador to Bolivia has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for working as an agent for Cuba.
Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, secretly passed information to the Cuban government for more than 40 years, according to prosecutors.
In February, Rocha changed his initial not guilty plea in a Miami court and ensured he would avoid a trial.
The espionage case is among the highest profile ever between the US and Cuba.
Dressed in a beige jail uniform on Friday, Rocha told a federal courtroom in Miami: “I plead guilty.”
In addition to prison, Rocha must also pay a $500,000 fine and cooperate with authorities.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland referred to Rocha’s crimes as “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the US government by a foreign agent”.
The Colombian-born, Yale and Harvard-educated Rocha served as US ambassador to Bolivia between 1999 and 2022, as well as in a variety of other diplomatic postings in Argentina, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.