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MIAMI — A former American diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested in a long-running FBI counterintelligence investigation, accused of secretly serving as an agent of Cuba’s authorities, The Related Press has discovered.
Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in Miami on Friday on a legal criticism and extra particulars concerning the case are anticipated to be made public at a court docket look Monday, stated two individuals who spoke to the AP on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to debate an ongoing federal investigation.
One of many folks stated the Justice Division case accuses Rocha of working to advertise the Cuban authorities’s pursuits. Federal regulation requires folks doing the political bidding of a international authorities or entity contained in the U.S. to register with the Justice Division, which in recent times has stepped up its legal enforcement of illicit international lobbying.
The Justice Division declined to remark. It was not instantly clear if Rocha had a lawyer and a regulation agency the place he beforehand labored stated it was not representing him. His spouse hung up when contacted by the AP.
Rocha’s 25-year diplomatic profession was spent underneath each Democratic and Republican administrations, a lot of it in Latin America in the course of the Chilly Struggle, a interval of typically heavy-handed U.S. political and navy insurance policies. His diplomatic postings included a stint on the U.S. Pursuits Part in Cuba throughout a time when the U.S. lacked full diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro’s communist authorities.
Born in Colombia, Rocha was raised in a working-class dwelling in New York Metropolis and went on to acquire a succession of liberal arts levels from Yale, Harvard and Georgetown earlier than becoming a member of the international service in 1981.
He was the highest U.S. diplomat in Argentina between 1997 and 2000 as a decade-long foreign money stabilization program backed by Washington was unraveling underneath the burden of big international debt and stagnant development, triggering a political disaster that might see the South American nation cycle via 5 presidents in two weeks.
At his subsequent submit as ambassador to Bolivia, he intervened instantly into the 2002 presidential race, warning weeks forward of the vote that the U.S. would minimize off help to the poor South American nation if it have been to elect former coca grower Evo Morales.
“I need to remind the Bolivian voters that in the event that they vote for many who need Bolivia to return to exporting cocaine, that may critically jeopardize any future help to Bolivia from america,″ Rocha stated in a speech that was extensively interpreted as a an try to maintain U.S. dominance within the area.
The gambit angered Bolivians and gave Morales a last-minute increase. When he was lastly elected three years later, the leftist chief expelled Rocha’s successor as chief of the diplomatic mission for inciting “civil battle.”
Rocha additionally served in Italy, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and labored as a Latin America skilled for the Nationwide Safety Council.
Rocha’s spouse, Karla Wittkop Rocha, wouldn’t remark when contacted by the AP. “I don’t want to speak to you,” she stated earlier than hanging up.
Following his retirement from the State Division, Rocha started a second profession in enterprise, serving because the president of a gold mine within the Dominican Republic partly owned by Canada’s Barrick Gold.
Extra lately, he’s held senior roles at XCoal, a Pennsylvania-based coal exporter; Clover Leaf Capital, an organization shaped to facilitate mergers within the hashish trade; regulation agency Foley & Lardner and Spanish public relations companies Llorente & Cuenca.
“Our agency stays dedicated to transparency and can intently monitor the scenario, cooperating absolutely with the authorities if any data turns into obtainable to us,” Dario Alvarez, CEO of Llorente & Cuenca’s U.S. operations, stated in an electronic mail.
XCoal and Clover Leaf Capital didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Foley & Lardner stated Rocha left the regulation agency in August.
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Tucker reported from Washington.
___ Contact AP’s international investigative staff at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/suggestions/
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