--- title: Former U.S. Diplomat Charged with Secretly Spying for Cuban Intelligence for Decades | TIME description: A former career American diplomat was charged Monday with serving as a secret agent for communist Cuba going back decades in what prosecutors portrayed as one of the most brazen and long-running betrayals in the history of the U.S. foreign service. canonical: https://time.com/video/FIRPKvWa/ og:title: Former U.S. Diplomat Charged with Secretly Spying for Cuban Intelligence for Decades og:description: A former career American diplomat was charged Monday with serving as a secret agent for communist Cuba going back decades in what prosecutors portrayed as one of the most brazen and long-running betrayals in the history of the U.S. foreign service. og:url: https://time.com/video/FIRPKvWa/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/FIRPKvWa/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Former U.S. Diplomat Charged with Secretly Spying for Cuban Intelligence for Decades twitter:description: A former career American diplomat was charged Monday with serving as a secret agent for communist Cuba going back decades in what prosecutors portrayed as one of the most brazen and long-running betrayals in the history of the U.S. foreign service. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/FIRPKvWa/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * U.S. # Former U.S. Diplomat Charged with Secretly Spying for Cuban Intelligence for Decades > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Former U.S. Diplomat Charged with Secretly Spying for Cuban Intelligence for Decades [Watch (HLS stream): Former U.S. Diplomat Charged with Secretly Spying for Cuban Intelligence for Decades](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FIRPKvWa.m3u8) (3:02)  _Published 2023-12-05. A former career American diplomat was charged Monday with serving as a secret agent for communist Cuba going back decades in what prosecutors portrayed as one of the most brazen and long-running betrayals in the history of the U.S. foreign service._ --- Dec 5, 2023 4:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [U.S. Diplomats in Cuba Attacked With Sonic Weapon That Caused Hearing Loss](/video/MH5A7Khg/) ### U.S. Diplomats in Cuba Attacked With Sonic Weapon That Caused Hearing Loss [Diplomats Call for U.S. Strikes on Assad](/video/LuFoDwNg/) ### Diplomats Call for U.S. Strikes on Assad [First U.S. Cruise Ship In Decades Arrives In Cuba](/video/oDjzvV0x/) ### First U.S. Cruise Ship In Decades Arrives In Cuba --- ## Transcript The department has charged former US ambassador to Bolivia Victor Manuel Rocha with illegally acting as an agent of a foreign government this action exposes one of the highest reaching and longest lasting infiltration of the US government by a foreign agent. Specifically the criminal complaint alleges that for over 40 years wrote you acted as a covert agent of the Cuban government does that end the complaint alleges roaches sought out employment with the US government that would provide him with access to nonpublic information and the ability to affect us foreign policy between 1981 and 2002. Rocha was employed at the state department and held a number of senior positions in the US government. Those included service on the National Security Council with special responsibility for Cuba. Among other things is included Service as Deputy principal officer at the US interests section in Havana Cuba and included Service as the US ambassador to Bolivia from 1999 to 2002. After leaving the state department roaches served as an adviser to the commander of the US Southern command the area of responsibility of that US military command includes Cuba the complaint alleges that roaches sought out and used his position within the United States government to support Cuba's clandestine intelligence gathering mission against the United States. After the FBI received information that Rocha was a covert agent of Cuba's intelligence service and FBI undercover proceeded to engage with Rocha on several occasions as detailed in the complaint. Rocha repeatedly referred to the United States as quote the anime. During the undercover a told the undercover that is efforts to infiltrate the United States government were quote meticulous and quote very disciplined and he repeatedly bragged about the significance of his efforts saying that quote what has been done as strengthen the revolution immensely the FBI arrested roach on Friday in Miami. He is making his initial appearance in the US District Court for the southern district of Florida this afternoon, as is always the case the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Those who have the privilege of serving in the government of the United States are given an enormous amount of trust by the public we serve. To betray that trust by falsely pledging loyalty to the United States while serving a foreign power is a crime that will be met with a full force of the justice department. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Former U.S. Diplomat Charged with Secretly Spying for Cuban Intelligence for Decades","description":" A former career American diplomat was charged Monday with serving as a secret agent for communist Cuba going back decades in what prosecutors portrayed as one of the most brazen and long-running betrayals in the history of the U.S. foreign service.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/FIRPKvWa/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-12-05T15:07:30.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FIRPKvWa.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/FIRPKvWa/","duration":"PT3M2S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/FIRPKvWa/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```