Miami: US federal prosecutors are seeking to revoke the American citizenship of imprisoned former US Ambassador Victor Manuel Rocha, claiming he obtained it under false pretenses while secretly serving Cuba's interests for over five decades. The Miami federal court filing alleges that Rocha falsely denied Communist ties and criminal conduct during his 1977-1978 naturalization process while covertly working for Cuba.
According to Anadolu Agency, Colombian-born Rocha was charged in December 2023 with conspiring to act as a foreign agent and defraud the US. He pleaded guilty in 2024 to acting as an illegal foreign agent and defrauding the US, with a judge stating he had 'betrayed the United States' for over five decades. Rocha admitted in a 2024 plea deal that he began working covertly for Cuban intelligence in 1973, years before gaining US citizenship, and later used his government roles to support Havana's interests.
US Attorney Jason A. Reding Quinones said in a news release that Rocha was not a low-level operative but a former US Ambassador and senior government official who admitted to secretly serving the Cuban regime for decades. Quinones emphasized that Rocha acquired his citizenship through deceit and that such individuals should not retain US citizenship, even while imprisoned. Rocha is currently serving a 15-year sentence at a federal prison in Florida.
Allegedly recruited in Chile in 1973 to spy for Cuba, Rocha later earned graduate degrees from Harvard and Georgetown, which prosecutors claim supported his covert work. He joined the US State Department in 1981, serving in Honduras, and later as a political officer at the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic from 1982 to 1985. The US Attorney's Office revealed that Rocha was recorded in meetings with an undercover FBI agent in 2022 and 2023, where he discussed his role as a Cuban intelligence agent, referring to the US as 'the enemy' and using 'we' when speaking about Cuba. He also praised Fidel Castro as the 'comandante' and called his Cuban intelligence contacts his 'companeros.'