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Victor Manuel Rocha, ex-U.S. ambassador, admits to spying for Cuba for decades
Washington — A former U.S. diplomat admitted to spying for Cuba for decades, telling a judge on Thursday that he intends to plead guilty to federal charges stemming from his espionage on behalf of the communist regime.
Victor Manuel Rocha, the former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, was indicted in December on charges that he allegedly spied for Cuba’s intelligence agency for four decades.
During a hearing in federal court in Miami on Thursday, Rocha said he had agreed to plead guilty to two charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government, according to The Associated Press. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss more than a dozen other charges in exchange for his guilty plea, the AP said.
The two counts carry a maximum sentence of between five and 10 years behind bars. The AP reported that Rocha replied “I am in agreement” when the judge asked him if he wanted to change his plea. His intention to change his plea was reflected on the case’s docket after the hearing. Rocha is due back in court on April 12.
Investigators alleged Rocha was recruited by Cuba’s spy agency, the Directorate of Intelligence, in Chile in 1973. The intelligence service instructed him to create a cover story to conceal his double life, according to prosecutors.
After Rocha’s arrest, Attorney General Merrick Garland described the case as “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign agent.” He said Rocha pursued U.S. government jobs that “would provide him with access to non-public information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy.”
Department of Justice / AP
The government has not publicly said what information Rocha might have divulged to Cuba or how he could have influenced U.S. policy. Rocha held high-level security clearances, giving him access to top secret information, according to the indictment.
Rocha had at least three meetings with an undercover FBI agent, whom the retired diplomat believed to be a representative of Cuba’s spy agency. He referred to the U.S. as “the enemy” and said “what we have done” was “enormous” and “more than a grand slam,” according to the criminal complaint.
“My number one concern; my number one priority was … any action on the part of Washington that would endanger the life of the leadership, or the revolution itself,” Rocha allegedly told the undercover agent.
Rocha was born in Colombia and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1978. For more than two decades beginning in 1981, he worked for the State Department in various positions in Latin America, including as ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002. Cuba fell under his purview when he served as director for inter-American affairs at the National Security Council and as a deputy principal officer at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana. After leaving the State Department, he was an adviser to the commander of the U.S. Southern Command, whose area of responsibility includes Cuba.
Rocha’s employment with the U.S. government overlapped with that of Ana Montes, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who spent 20 years in prison for spying for Cuba before being released in 2023. She was recruited by Cuban intelligence in 1984 before she was hired by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
In one of his meetings with the undercover FBI agent, prosecutors said Rocha praised a U.S. government employee who had spied for Cuba, saying she “was betrayed.”
“Sadly she would have done much more had she not been betrayed,” he said, later identifying her as “Ana,” according to the indictment.
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Long before comic book characters dominated movie screens, actor Christopher Reeve made the world believes in superheroes with the 1978 classic “Superman.”
Reeve died in 2004, nearly a decade after an accident re-shaped his life. “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” is using interviews with family and friends and never-before-seen home videos to explore his real-life heroism.
Reeve started his career on the stage, studying at the prestigious Juilliard School and living with comedian Robin Williams. The pair had a friendship that was “more like a brotherhood,” said Reeve’s son Matthew. Reeve was in awe of Williams’ energy and versatility, Matthew Reeve said, but audiences quickly clued into Reeve’s own star power when he took on the role of the Man of Steel.
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To his children, though, he “was just dad,” Matthew Reeve said. The documentary explores how Matthew Reeve and his sister Alexandra Reeve Givens grew up watching their dad take the stage as Superman. “Super/Man” also reveals their heartbreak over their parents’ breakup and the joy they found when Reeve re-married. He tied the knot with Dana Reeve in 1992, and the pair welcomed another child, William Reeve, later that year.
“Dana was sunshine,” Alexandra Reeve Givens recalled. “She just brought joy with her wherever she was and could find it even in the darkest moments.”
Those dark moments came suddenly, when in 1995, a near-fatal horseback riding accident left Reeve paralyzed from the neck down. The documentary allows viewers to see, for the first time, what went on out of the public’s view. Reeve can be heard talking about how he “ruined (his) life and everybody else’s,” but in a touching moment, old friend Robin Williams is seen visiting him in the hospital.
“Robin showed him ‘Hey, you’re still you,'” Alexandra Reeve Givens said. “‘You still have this foundation of friendship and people around you, who adore you. And you’re going to find those fun moments in life again.'”
That support from friends and family re-ignited Reeve’s legacy of activism. He made appearances at the Democratic National Convention and the 68th Academy Awards in 1996, about a year after the accident. Matthew Reeve said watching his father address his industry peers at the Oscars was “one of (his) most proud moments.”
“It was just a production for him to get out of bed every morning, let alone get across the country and go out in public for the first time,” Matthew Reeve said. “It was a big deal. It was a big deal to him, but it was also a big deal to the entire disability community. We stayed up in London till like three in the morning to watch that live. It’s a fond memory.”
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Reeve also went on to launch what would become the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing research into spiral cord injury and help individuals and families impacted by paralysis. It was his dad’s mission to find a cure, Matthew Reeve said, while his stepmother wanted to focus on improving the lives of paralyzed people and their families. The foundation and Reeve’s platform helped bring unprecedented attention and funding to spinal cord injury research.
Reeve even kept acting and realized his lifelong dream of directing with the 1997 HBO movie “In the Gloaming.” Reeve died in 2004 from heart failure at 52.
“There is a huge amount of great actors and actresses out there, where their filmography might be amazing and what they achieve on a cultural level might be amazing, but have they actually achieved anything really as a human that moves the needle for our society?” said filmmaker Ian Bonhote, who made the documentary with Peter Ettedgui. “And Chris has done both things.”
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” will open in theaters on Friday, Oct. 11.
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