In early December, 73-year-old Manuel Rocha was taken away by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a townhouse in the suburbs of Miami, Florida, USA.
Rocha was a veteran diplomat who traveled extensively in Latin America, from Honduras to Cuba, Argentina to Bolivia, and at one point as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia. After leaving the ** department in 2005, he chose to "go to sea" and currently works in several multinational companies.
At first, this action of the FBI did not attract much attention. After all, Rocha has been out of public office for nearly 20 years, and his business is complicated and could get into trouble at any time. However, three days after he was taken away, Rocha was accused of serving as Cuban** for more than 40 years.
The ambassador suddenly became a spy, which was unprecedented in American history. A storm of diplomacy swept through the United States.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland noted in a statement that this is perhaps "one of the most far-reaching and longest-lasting cases of foreign infiltration of the United States."
The United States ** described this kind of thing as only appearing in the script of Hollywood agents - a MAGA (an abbreviation of Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again"), which means "Make America Great Again") Republican, who is a glamorous diplomat in front of him, but lives an unknown life in private.
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The strange actions of the American ambassador
On December 3, 2023, Rocha appeared in federal court in Miami and remained silent. It wasn't until the end of the trial, when he saw his family leave, that the 70-year-old man began to cry.
That kind of poignant look is completely different from Rocha's previous image.
In the memories of his colleagues, Rocha is talkative, quick-witted and charismatic. In previous official reports, he was described as a diplomat with a "resolute personality and smooth handling of things".
Rocha was born in Colombia in 1950 to a working-class family. He immigrated to the United States with his family and became a U.S. citizen. Growing up in the minority-populated Harlem area of Manhattan, New York City, Rocha received his bachelor's and master's degrees in liberal arts from Yale and Harvard, and his master's degree in international relations from Georgetown University.
Rocha's career began in 1981. At that time, he was the first person in charge of Honduras in the United States. In the indictment, prosecutors believe that his initial work for Cuba may have been from that time.
Since then, he has served in the U.S. diplomatic missions in Dominica, Honduras, Mexico, and other countries, and has served as Director of Americas Affairs for one year at the U.S. Commission for the First Year since July 1994.
In 1996, Cuba shot down two United States civilian planes flown by anti-Cuban exiles, causing tensions between the United States and Cuba. At that time, the United States and Cuba were in a state of severance of diplomatic relations, and the Swiss Embassy in Cuba had a representative office of American interests in Havana, and Rocha was the second-in-command of the representative office.
In 1997, Rocha was appointed U.S. Deputy Ambassador to Argentina. More than two years later, he traveled to Bolivia as ambassador.
In the eyes of his colleagues, Rocha was skilled in diplomacy.
Most people felt that Rocha was sleek and intelligent, with extraordinary diplomatic talents. Yes, he was even very likable. He had a good relationship with everyone sent to work in Latin America by the Washington diplomatic establishment. At the time, everyone thought that he would be a rising diplomatic star destined to serve as ambassador. Philip Lindeman, a former U.S. diplomat, had worked with Rocha in Havana for a time and had seen what Rocha was capable of.
But it was such an experienced diplomat who did something strange to his colleagues during his tenure in Bolivia.
A few weeks before the 2002 vote in Bolivia***, Rocha, as the U.S. ambassador, made a sudden statement saying that if leftist Morales was elected, the U.S. would cut off aid to the country. The reason he gave was that Morales not only cultivated coca himself (the coca leaf was used to process the drug cocaine), but also supported the legalization of coca cultivation and its export.
However, the threat backfired and boosted Morales' popularity. Although Morales narrowly lost the 2002 election, he later won the 2005 election.
Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich was Rocha's boss. Rocha's performance at the time, he said, was astounding. "This is an extremely unusual move for an experienced diplomat, and in practice it amounts to public 'canvassing' for Morales. Afterwards, he never gave any explanation. ”
Since Morales' election, Bolivia's relations with the United States have been strained. During his tenure, he also found an excuse to expel the U.S. ambassador. In his later years, Morales often traveled to Cuba to recuperate. He had hinted that Rocha's warnings had helped him a lot, jokingly calling him "campaign leader."
Encountered "phishing law enforcement".
With the exception of that somewhat "blushing" operation in Bolivia, Rocha has been consistently watertight.
Lindeman vividly remembers working with Rocha in Havana and often hearing Rocha in the hallways unabashedly criticizing Cuba — "those Cubans really deserve to be shot." Mr. Lindemann said Mr. Rocha was very clever in disguising himself as a center-right and fooling everyone.
Some old colleagues and friends have described Rocha as a "big fan" of former Republican Donald Trump. In 2015, Obama** restored long-severed diplomatic relations with Cuba and lifted a number of sanctions against Cuba. After Trump came to power in 2017, he took a tough stance on Cuba, and some sanctions were reactivated.
Eduardo Gamarra, a professor of international relations at Florida International University, has known Rocha since the '80s. Mr. Rocha, he said, had been disguising himself as a right-wing and that "he was becoming more and more like Mr. Trump."
How was Rocha discovered this time?
Originated from a "fishing law enforcement". According to the indictment, since 2022, an undercover agent of the United States **Intelligence Agency under the pseudonym "Miguel" pretended to be Cuban**, established contact with Rocha, and deceived him into trust. Over the past two years, they have met face-to-face many times.
In front of Miguel, Rocha repeatedly used the word "enemy" to refer to the United States, saying that he was "cautiously" infiltrating the center of power in the United States and influencing US foreign policy. He praised the late Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, referring to himself and Cuba with "we".
Rocha told Miguel that he had traveled to Havana twice, in 2016 and 2017, to meet with his upline at the Cuban General Intelligence Service. He also "extended his warmest greetings" to the General Intelligence Directorate of Cuba.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Rocha met with Miguel in a different location each time, including a church in downtown Miami and an outdoor food court. Each time, he carefully chose to go around the distance, and made several stops along the way. Rocha told Miguel that he had learned all these tricks to get rid of the stalking from the Cubans.
In a secret audio recording, Rocha said that he had been a "mole" in Cuban foreign policy circles for more than 40 years, carrying out astonishing espionage activities. "What we've done, it's been remarkable......Better than a Grand Slam. ”
During the last meeting, Rocha became angry when Miguel asked him if he was still loyal to Cuba and if he was still a "compa ero" (comrade). He even burst into foul language, saying that such inquiries were like questioning whether he was a man.
In these secret meetings, Rocha also referred to the two United States civilian planes shot down by Cuba in 1996. "I went through it all because I was in charge at the time. It was a very intense time. The phrase hinted at Rocha's deep involvement in the events at the time, but the exact details were not disclosed.
"He did it voluntarily".
John Feeley, a career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Panama, dealt with Rocha decades ago. He is well aware of the turbulent waves that the Rocha case may bring to the US diplomatic circles.
Rocha can be said to have obtained the 'king's key,'" Feeley said, "and in addition to influencing U.S. foreign policy, he had access to very sensitive intelligence information while working in Cuba, Argentina, and Bolivia." It's a nightmare. ”
Analysts say the case will raise questions about the effectiveness of U.S. counterintelligence efforts and force relevant U.S. agencies to conduct internal damage assessments to determine the amount and scope of classified information leaks.
But everything had to be based on Rocha's own confession. If he does not cooperate, the associated damage assessment may be difficult to move forward.
Chris Simmons, a former Defense Intelligence Agency investigator specializing in espionage cases, said: "The investigation will be entirely dependent on Rocha's cooperation, and even if people know he's going to lie and avoid the serious, it's better than nothing." ”
As of press time, Rocha had not reached a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
In fact, even after retirement, Rocha still has access to a lot of valuable intelligence. From 2006 to 2012, he served as an advisor for Latin America at the U.S. Southern Command. In recent years, Rocha has served as a senior vice president at a Pennsylvania coal export company and a member of the board of directors of Clover Capital, a tobacco company. And judging from his statement to Miguel, he still went to Cuba several times during this period.
So far, the fact that Rocha is a "Cuban**" is only an accusation by the United States. The Cuban side has so far not commented on Rocha**.
Kevin Whitaker, who served as US ambassador to Colombia, said that some people think that people who spy for other countries often aim for money or personal grudges, but Cuba is indeed an exception, and almost all Americans who engage in intelligence for Cuba do so out of sympathy and support for the Cuban revolutionary cause and bitter hatred for US foreign policy.
Whitaker said that of all the espionage cases that have occurred in the United States in the last 40 years, Rogcha may be "the first person in the American diplomatic elite to be accused of betraying the country."
Previously, the FBI considered "the most dangerous spy America has ever had" to be Anna Montes.
Anna is the chief Cuba analyst at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. She was recruited by Cuban intelligence in 1984, and after training in Havana, she infiltrated the Pentagon for 17 years, until 2001. In January 2023, Anna was released from prison.
Throughout, Anna thinks she's doing the right thing. While in prison, she wrote to her relatives and friends that she was willing to provide information to Cuba because the United States had "done the most ruthless and unjust thing" against Cuba.
Fulton Armstrong, a senior fellow in the Latin American Program at American University in Washington and a former U.S. intelligence agency analyst, said: "I don't think Rocha was recruited, he did it voluntarily. ”
Armstrong also suggested that Rocha grew up in Harlem, where there is a large Hispanic population. "He's a very smart guy who gets into *** on his own right, but he probably never feels like he's been treated as an equal, and he'll never be accepted into the American establishment elite. Perhaps this is the reason why he feels sympathy for Latin American countries that have long been suppressed by the United States, especially Cuba, which has been sanctioned by the United States for many years.
According to Shangguan News, Global People.