Tag: John D. Feeley

U.S. Indicts and Arrests Victor Manuel Rocha on Charges of Acting as Cuban Undercover Agent

On December 4, 2023, Victor Manuel Rocha, a naturalized U.S. citizen and a retired U.S. Ambassador, was indicted and arrested by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida for acting as a Cuban undercover agent for 40 years.

Rocha Case Summary[1]

U.S. Attorney General, Merrick B. Garland, had the following comment on this indictment: “We allege that for over 40 years, [which was “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent”], Victor Manuel Rocha served as an agent of the Cuban government and sought out and obtained positions within the United States government that would provide him with access to non-public information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy. Those who have the privilege of serving in the government of the United States are given an enormous amount of trust by the public we serve. To betray that trust by falsely pledging loyalty to the United States while serving a foreign power is a crime that will be met with the full force of the Justice Department.”

Also commenting on the Rocha case was U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, “Individuals who violate federal law by engaging in clandestine activity for hostile foreign states, and by providing false information about those activities to the U.S. government, endanger American democracy. That is especially so for past or present employees of the United States who took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, and for U.S. citizens who benefit from the freedoms and opportunities of this country. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners in South Florida, and elsewhere, will continue to vigorously enforce all federal laws.”

That U.S. Attorney’s Office summarized the complaint as alleging “in a series of meetings during 2022 and 2023, with an undercover agent from the FBI posing as a covert Cuban General Directorate of Intelligence representative, Rocha made repeated statements admitting his ‘decades’ of work for Cuba, spanning ‘40 years.’ When the undercover agent told Rocha he was ‘a covert representative here in Miami’ whose mission was ‘to contact you, introduce myself as your new contact, and establish a new communication plan,’ Rocha answered ‘Yes,’ and proceeded to engage in a lengthy conversation during which he described and celebrated his activity as a Cuban intelligence agent. Throughout the meetings, Rocha behaved as a Cuban agent, consistently referring to the United States as ‘the enemy,’ and using the term ‘we’ to describe himself and Cuba. Rocha additionally praised Fidel Castro as the ‘Comandante,’ and referred to his contacts in Cuban intelligence as his ‘Compañeros’ (comrades) and to the Cuban intelligence services as the ‘Dirección.’ Rocha described his work as a Cuban agent as ‘more than a grand slam.’”

A preliminary meeting with the Court was scheduled for January 12, but the court postponed it to March 29th after a March 19th meeting of Rocha and counsel with the Prosecutor’s office. Some see this postponement as an opportunity for the sides to negotiate a guilty plea.

John D. Feeley, a former career diplomat who worked alongside Mr. Rocha decades ago, said the case might be among the worst intelligence breaches in recent history. According to Feeley, ““Manuel literally had the keys to the kingdom. If it had to do with Cuba, he got to see it.”

Mr. Rocha  served at the State Department (1981-2002) with a stint at the National Security Council (1994-95). He was U.S. ambassador to Bolivia (2000-02) and adviser to the commander of U.S. Southern Command. (200612),”which is responsible for managing the U.S. Base at Guantanamo, Cuba.

Other Background

In 2001, Ana Belen Montes, a senior analyst specializing in Cuba at the Defense Intelligence Agency, was arrested and told investigators in the 1980s she had been recruited by Cuban intelligence personnel when she had a clerical job at the U.S. Justice Department and fed U.S. information to her Cuban handlers on a shortwave radio. She arranged for a guilty plea by agreeing to tell the FBI everything she knew about Cuban intelligence operations and received a 25-year sentence, but was released in 2023 after serving most of that sentence.[2]

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[1] Complaint, U.S. v. Victor Manuel Rocha, Case No. 23-MJ-4368-Torres, U.S. Dist. Ct. (S. Dist. FL), 12/4/23; U.S.Attorney’s Office (S.Dist. Fl.), Former U.S. Ambassador and National Security Council Official Charged with Secretly Acting as an Agent of the Cuban Government (Dec. 4, 2023); Thrush, Londono, Adams & Robles, Retired U.S. Diplomat Accused of Working as a Secret Agent for Cuba, N.Y. Times (Dec. 4, 2023); Barrett, Sheridan & DeYoung, Ex-U.S. ambassador accused of being Cuba’s secret agent since 1981, Wash. Post (Dec. 4, 2023); Cordoba, Former U.S. Ambassador Charged as Secret Agent for Cuba, W.S.J. (Dec. 4, 2023); Londono, Robbles & Adams, Ex-U.S. Ambassador Accused of Being a Cuba Agent Rose From Humble Origins, N.Y. Times (Dec. 8, 2023); Weaver, Indictment: Diplomat’s ‘purpose’ as agent for Cuba was to hand over classified information, Miami Herald  (Dec. 8, 2024); Tait, ‘Ego and resentment’: what led former US diplomat to spy for Cuba? Guardian (Dec. 10, 2023); Cordoba,& Strobel, Accused Spy for Cuba Lived the American Dream, W.S.J. (Dec. 13, 2023);Weaver & Delgado, Former U.S. official arrested in Miami on charges of being secret agent for Cuba, Miami Herald (Jan. 5, 2024); Weaver, Ex-diplomat accused of being Cuban agent agrees to detention, hinting at plea deal, some say, Miami Herald (Jan 8,2024); The judicial hearing of Victor Rocha, former spy of the Cuban regime, would be held in March, Diario de Cuba (Jan. 23. 2024); Court documents in the case may be found at the District Court’s website.

[2]  Ana Montes: Cuban Spy, History: Famous Cases & Criminals.

President Trump’s Skepticism About John Bolton’s Advice

According to journalists at the Washington Post, President Donald Trump is questioning his Administration’s recent aggressive strategy about Venezuela and about his National Security Advisor, John Bolton, one of the main advocates of such a strategy. [1]

As discussed in an earlier post, last week’s failure of an attempt to takeover the Venezuelan government by Juan Guaidó has prompted Trump to complain about having been misled about how easy it would be for such an attempt. Moreover, these journalists say, Trump’s “dissatisfaction has crystallized around . . . Bolton and . . .i [his] interventionist stance at odds with . . . [Trump’s] view that the United States should stay out of foreign quagmires.”

An unnamed U.S. official who is familiar with U.S.-Venezuela policy says “Trump [privately] has expressed concern that Bolton has boxed him into a corner and gone beyond where he is comfortable.” Nevertheless, two senior administration officials said Bolton’s job was “safe.”

Various current and former officials and outside advisers have said that the failure of last week’s takeover attempt has “effectively shelved serious discussion of a heavy U.S. military response.” One sign of this development was Vice President’s recent speech, as discussed in a prior post, announcing new U.S. measures regarding Venezuela that did not include any use or threat of military force other than the frequent comment that “all options are on the table.”

Trump has himself to blame too. His “approach to foreign intervention is largely ad hoc and idiosyncratic — driven less by ideology than by his hunger for foreign policy victories and confidence in his own deal-making skills.” This “lack of ideological coherence has played to the advantage of “ Bolton and Secretary Pompeo.

Another expert, Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said, ““There is a fundamental conflict between the administration’s desire for regime change and what it is willing to do to bring it about. That is the contradiction of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy.”

John D. Feeley, a former U.S. ambassador and Univision political analyst, said that military intervention in Venezuela is unlikely because it “runs counter to Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection narrative. At a time when you’re pulling people back from Syria, back from Iraq, back from Afghanistan, how do you say we’re going to commit 50-, 100-, 150,000 of our blood and treasure to a country where you can’t tell the bad guys from the good guys?”

Conclusion

This news of Trump’s questioning the wisdom of advice from John Bolton is a welcome surprise. As noted in a prior post, this blogger and others more deeply involved in analyzing national security issues seriously question the wisdom of Bolton’s long-held belief in the use of U.S. military force.

Now is the time for Bolton to leave the government!

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[1] Gearan, Dawsey, Hudson & Kim, A frustrated Trump questions his administration’s Venezuela strategy, Wash. Post (May 8, 2019); Landler, With Mix of Threats and Blandishments, Trump Bandies Policy of Regime Change, N.Y. Times (May 8, 2019).