Kamal Ghorui
Former US diplomat, Victor Manuel Rocha, will be kicked out of the US for spying for Cuba for 40 years.
As the Donald Trump administration cracks the whip on individuals who fraudulently obtained US citizenship and published a list of 12 such people under fire, one name stands out conspicuously. He is Victor Manuel Rocha, who was a former US ambassador to Bolivia. He was arrested in 2023 and admitted to having acted as a secret agent of Cuba for 40 years.A native of Colombia, Rocha grew up in New York City, graduated from Yale, studied masters in Harvard and became a US citizen in 1978. Three years later, Rocha began working for the US State Department in 1981. His first posting was as a political officer in the US embassy in 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 the US ambassador to Bolivia.The Department of Justice, in its denaturalization complaint, said Rocha lied in his citizenship process as he was already working as an agent since 1973.“Under no circumstances should an agent of a foreign adversary be permitted to hold the title of American 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 adhere to our laws. Any individual who lied during the naturalization process to gain a foothold in this country will be met with the full weight of the Department of Justice.”“Victor Manuel Rocha was not a low-level operative. He was a former United States Ambassador and senior government official who admitted he secretly served the Cuban regime for decades,” said US Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “The Southern District of Florida helped take down one of the most prolific Cuban spies ever uncovered in the United States. This civil denaturalization case is about finishing the job. The complaint alleges that Rocha obtained American citizenship through lies, concealment, and betrayal. A person who secretly serves communist Cuba should not keep the privilege of United States citizenship, even while in prison.”
Unregistered agent of Cuba
Rocha was serving 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 Communist Party of Cuba; he had not advocated, believed in, or knowingly supported and furthered the interests of Communism; and he believed in the US Constitution and the form of government of the US None of these were true.The DoJ said Rocha was not qualified for naturalization for several reasons, including that he committed unlawful acts, gave false testimony during his naturalization examination, was not attached to the principles of the US Constitution and not well-disposed to the good order and happiness of the US, was affiliated with the Communist Party of Cuba, and advocated for communism. The US will also seek the revocation of his naturalization because he procured his citizenship by concealing material facts or willful misrepresenting several facts in naturalization proceedings related to spying for Cuba, it said.
