US ex-envoy Victor Manuel Rocha who spied for Cuba sentenced to 15 years
- Rocha, whose espionage activities continued until his arrest, was also given a US$500,000 fine
- Attorney General Merrick Garland said the 73-year-old had ‘repeatedly bragged about the significance of his efforts’
A former US ambassador who pleaded guilty to spying for Cuba for over four decades was sentenced in federal court on Friday to 15 years in prison.
Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in December for what US officials called “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent.”
Rocha pleaded not guilty in February to charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government but later accepted a plea deal with federal prosecutors.
Judge Beth Bloom, after a three-and-a-half hour hearing in Miami on Friday, told Rocha she would give him “the maximum penalty permitted by law.”
In addition to the 15-year sentence, Rocha was given a US$500,000 fine.
Rocha, a naturalised US citizen originally from Colombia, allegedly began aiding Havana as a covert agent of Cuba’s General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI) in 1981, and his espionage activities continued until his arrest, according to US authorities.
