Former US ambassador arrested in Florida, accused of serving as an agent of Cuba, AP source says
MIAMI– A former U.S. diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested in a long-running FBI counterintelligence investigation. He is accused of secretly serving as an agent of the Cuban government, the Associated Press has learned.
Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in Miami on Friday on a criminal complaint and more details about the case are expected to be made public Monday at a court hearing, said two people who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing federal investigation.
One of the people said the Justice Department case accuses Rocha of promoting the interests of the Cuban government. Federal law requires people carrying out the political orders of a foreign government or entity in the U.S. to register with the Justice Department, which has stepped up criminal enforcement of illegal foreign lobbying activities in recent years.
The Justice Department declined to comment. It was not immediately clear whether Rocha had an attorney, and a law firm he previously worked at said it did not represent him. His wife hung up when contacted by the AP.
Rocha's 25-year diplomatic career was spent under both Democratic and Republican administrations, much of it in Latin America during the Cold War, a period of sometimes heavy-handed American political and military policies. His diplomatic posts included a stint with the US Interests Section in Cuba at a time when the US did not have full diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro's communist government.
Born in Colombia, Rocha grew up in a working-class home in New York City and went on to earn a series of liberal arts degrees from Yale, Harvard and Georgetown before joining the Foreign Service in 1981.
He was the top US diplomat in Argentina between 1997 and 2000, when a decade-long currency stabilization program backed by Washington collapsed under the weight of massive foreign debt and stagnant growth, triggering a political crisis that engulfed the South American country for five years. would make it survive for a long time. presidents in two weeks.
In his next post as ambassador to Bolivia, he waded directly into the 2002 presidential race, warning weeks before the vote that the US would cut aid to the poor South American country if it elected former coca grower Evo Morales.
“I would like to remind the Bolivian electorate that if they vote for those who want Bolivia to return to exporting cocaine, it will seriously jeopardize any future aid to Bolivia from the United States,” Rocha said in a speech that went public interpreted as trying to maintain American dominance in the region.
The gamble worked, but three years later the Bolivians elected Morales and the left-wing leader would expel Rocha's successor as head of the diplomatic mission for inciting a 'civil war'.
Rocha also served in Italy, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and worked as a Latin America expert for the National Security Council.
Rocha's wife, Karla Wittkop Rocha, declined to comment when contacted by AP. “I don't need to talk to you,” she said before hanging up.
After retiring from the State Department, Rocha began a second career in business, serving as president of a gold mine in the Dominican Republic, partly owned by Canada's Barrick Gold.
Most recently, he has held senior positions at XCoal, a Pennsylvania coal exporter; Clover Leaf Capital, a company formed to facilitate mergers in the cannabis industry; law firm Foley & Lardner and Spanish PR agencies Llorente & Cuenca.
“Our company remains committed to transparency and will closely monitor the situation and cooperate fully with authorities as information becomes available to us,” said Dario Alvarez, CEO of Llorente. & Cuenca's U.S. operations, said in an email.
Foley & Lardner said Rocha left the law firm in August.
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Tucker reported from Washington.
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