Former US diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha will be deported from the US on charges of spying for Cuba for 40 years.
As the Donald Trump administration cracks down on individuals fraudulently obtaining US citizenship and publishes a list of 12 such people who have come under fire, one name has clearly emerged. He is Victor Manuel Rocha, the former US ambassador to Bolivia. He was arrested in 2023 and admitted to working as a Cuban secret agent for 40 years.A native of Colombia, Rocha grew up in New York City, graduated from Yale, pursued post-graduate studies at Harvard, and became a U.S. citizen in 1978. Three years later, Rocha began working for the US State Department in 1981. His first posting was as a political officer at the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic, then Honduras, then he served as First Secretary of the US Embassy in Mexico City.In 2000, President Bill Clinton appointed Rocha as US Ambassador to Bolivia.The Justice Department said in its denaturalization complaint that Rocha lied in his citizenship process because he had already been working as an agent since 1973.“Under no circumstances should an agent of a foreign adversary be allowed to hold the status of a U.S. citizen,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate. “Our mission is clear: to root out these fraudsters and preserve the sanctity of the naturalization process for those who follow our laws. Anyone who lies during the naturalization process to gain a foothold in this country will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Justice Department.“U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason A. Redding Quinones said, “Victor Manuel Rocha was no low-level operative. He was a former United States Ambassador and senior government official who admitted that he secretly served the Cuban regime for decades.” “The Southern District of Florida helped take down one of the most powerful Cuban spies ever exposed in the United States. This civil denaturalization case is about to finish the job. The complaint alleges that Rocha obtained U.S. citizenship through lies, concealment, and fraud. A person who secretly serves communist Cuba should not retain the privileges of United States citizenship even while in prison.
Cuban unregistered agent
Rocha was working as an unregistered agent for the Republic of Cuba. When he applied for naturalization, Rocha represented under penalty of perjury that he had not committed crimes for which he had not been arrested; He was not affiliated with the Cuban Communist Party; He had neither advocated, believed in, nor knowingly supported or advanced the interests of communism; And he believed in the American Constitution and the American form of government, none of which were true.The DOJ said Rocha was ineligible for naturalization for several reasons, including having committed illegal acts, committing perjury during his naturalization examination, not being held to the principles of the US Constitution and America’s good order and happiness, being affiliated with the Cuban Communist Party, and advocating communism. It said the US will also seek to revoke his naturalization because he obtained his citizenship by concealing material facts or knowingly misrepresenting a number of facts in naturalization proceedings related to espionage for Cuba.