A former United States Ambassador has been accused of secretly aiding the communist government of Cuba.
Manuel Rocha was arrested in Miami on Dec. 1 and will be arraigned on Dec. 4. The 73-year-old became the ambassador to Bolivia in August of 2000. Prior to the appointment, he was the Charge d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina for three years.
According to a now archived biography on the State Department’s website, “Ambassador Rocha also has served as Deputy Principal Officer of the U.S. Interests Section Havana, Cuba, as well as the Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council in Washington, DC. From November 1991 until June 1994, Ambassador Rocha was the Deputy Chief of Mission for the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Prior to that, he was Deputy Political Counselor for the U.S. Embassy Mexico City, Mexico.”
His time in Argentina coincided with “a decade-long currency stabilization program backed by Washington [that] was unraveling under the weight of huge foreign debt and stagnant growth, triggering a political crisis that would see the South American country cycle through five presidents in two weeks,” per ABC News.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has accused Rocha of working to support Cuba without registering as a foreign agent in violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act. The federal government reportedly received information about Rocha from two informants.
“Federal prosecutors have increased concerns about FARA violations during the last few years,” reports ADN America. "The charge was utilized during the Mueller investigation as federal prosecutors closely examined the relationship some foreigners and U.S. citizens had with the Russian government.”
Rocha was born in Colombia and raised in New York City. He graduated from Yale University in 1973 and received a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard in 1976 as well as a Master’s in International Relations from Georgetown University in 1978.
After retiring from the State Department, Rocha worked as the president of a gold mine in the Dominican Republic owned in part by Barrick Gold. He has also held senior executive roles at Pennsylvania-based XCoal, the cannabis industry acquisition company Clover Leaf Capital, and the Spanish public relations firm Llorente & Cuenca, per ABC News.
“Our firm remains committed to transparency and will closely monitor the situation, cooperating fully with the authorities if any information becomes available to us,” said the firm’s CEO of U.S. operations Dario Alvarez in a statement reported by The Daily Mail.
FBI spokesman James Marshall declined a request for comment from the Miami Herald shortly after Rocha’s arrest. Sarah Schall, a prosecutor and spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, told the outlet she could not comment on the case.
