The story reads more like a spy novel than real life, as an editorial in Diario Libre observes on 5 December 2023. Former US ambassador, 73-year old Victor Manuel Rocha was indicted by US federal prosecutors on 1 December 2023 with charges of having acted as an agent of the government of Cuba for over four decades. Born in Colombia, Rocha is also an American and a Dominican citizen.
“This action exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. He stated in a US Justice Department press release: “We allege that for over 40 years, Victor Manuel Rocha served as an agent of the Cuban government and sought out and obtained positions within the United States government that would provide him with access to non-public information and the ability to affect US foreign policy. 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 the full force of the Justice Department.”
According to the complaint placed against the retired diplomat, beginning no later than approximately 1981, and continuing to the present, Rocha secretly supported the Republic of Cuba and its clandestine intelligence-gathering mission against the United States by serving as a covert agent of Cuba’s General Directorate of Intelligence.
Rocha is Colombian by birth. Reportedly, he took on US citizenship in 1978. He became a Dominican citizen after he married an upscale Dominican, Karla Wittkop, who he met during his term as deputy chief of mission and acting ambassador in the Dominican Republic from 1991 to 1994. Yet, reports now reveal he used his Dominican citizenship to covertly enter Cuba.
In the Dominican Republic Rocha after leaving the diplomatic service with the United States would be the president of the Barrick Gold mine operation. During the Trump administration, he would sell coal to the Dominican government-owned Punta Catalina power plant, representing XCoal Energy.
Rocha served in the US State Department from 1981 to 2002, including prominent posts as US ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002 and as director of Inter-American Affairs on the US National Security Council—a position responsible for Cuba—from 1994 to 1995. He also served as an advisor to the Commander of US Southern Command from around 2006 to around 2012.
At the time of his arrest, Rocha lived with his wife in Miami, Florida.
The story has made headlines all around the world.
Read more:
US Justice Department
US Justice Department complaint
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
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The Guardian
NPR
France 24
5 December 2023