Photograph: Alex Brandon/APFormer US diplomat arrested in Florida accused of working as an agent for Cuba
Manuel Rocha, 73 , who once served as ambassador to Bolivia, is accused of working to promote the interests of the Cuban government
A former American diplomat who served as US ambassador to Bolivia has been detained for a long time. As the Associated Press has learned, he is being investigated by the FBI and is accused of secretly working as an agent of the Cuban government.
Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in Miami on Friday on felony charges, and more details about the case are expected to be released at a court hearing on Monday, said two people who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they do not were authorized. to discuss the ongoing federal investigation.
One of the interlocutors said the US Justice Department case accuses Rocha of working to advance the interests of the Cuban government. Federal law requires people doing political work for a foreign government or organization on U.S. soil to register with the Justice Department, which has increased criminal penalties for illegal foreign lobbying in recent years.
The Justice Department declined to comment. It was unclear whether Rocha had an attorney, and the law firm where he previously worked said it did not represent him. His wife hung up when AP contacted her.
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 harsh U.S. political and military policies. His diplomatic assignments included serving in the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba at a time when the U.S. did not have full diplomatic relations with the communist government of Fidel Castro.
Rocha was born in Colombia and raised in Colombia. lived in a blue-collar home in New York and earned several liberal arts degrees from Yale, Harvard and Georgetown before joining the Foreign Service in 1981.
He was the top US diplomat to Argentina between 1997 and 2000, when a decade-long currency stabilization program backed by Washington was unraveling under the weight of massive foreign debt and stagnant economic growth, triggering a political crisis that would send the South American country into a five-year cycle . presidents in two weeks.
In his next post as ambassador to Bolivia, he intervened directly in the 2002 presidential race, warning weeks before the vote that the United States would cut off aid to the struggling South American country if it elected former coca producer Evo Morales.
«I want 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 US aid to Bolivia,» Rocha said in his speech, which many interpreted as an attempt to maintain US dominance in the region.
The gambit worked, but three years later Bolivians elected Morales anyway, and the leftist leader ousted 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 also served as an expert on Latin America at the National Security Council.
Rocha's wife, Carla Wittkop Rocha, did not comment when contacted by the AP. “I don’t need to talk to you,” she said before hanging up.
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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.
He most recently held senior management positions at XCoal, a Pennsylvania-based coal exporter; Clover Leaf Capital, a company created to facilitate mergers in the cannabis industry; Law firm Foley & Lardner and Spanish public relations firm Llorente & Cuenca.
“Our firm remains committed to transparency and will closely monitor the situation, fully cooperating with authorities if any information becomes available to us,” Dario Alvarez , CEO of Llorente. & This was reported in an email from Cuenca's US unit.
XCoal and Clover Leaf Capital did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Foley & Lardner said Rocha left the law firm in August.
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