Former US diplomat who spied for Cuba sentenced to 15 years in prison

Victor Manuel Rocha, a former United States diplomat, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting to acting as an agent of Cuba, in what the US Department of Justice has called one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the US government.

According to US prosecutors, Rocha secretly supported Cuba’s governing Communist Party and aided the country’s intelligence gathering against Washington for more than four decades, including during a 20-year career in the US Department of State.

“Today’s plea brings an end to more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by Mr Rocha,” David Newman, a senior national security official at the US Justice Department said at a news conference in Miami on Friday.

Rocha spoke in praise of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and bragged about his service for more than 40 years as a Cuban mole in the heart of US foreign policy circles, prosecutors said in court records.

“What we have done … it’s enormous … more than a Grand Slam,” he was quoted as saying.

Washington and Havana have had strained relations for more than 60 years since Castro and his team of armed revolutionaries overthrew a US-backed dictatorship.

Moreover, the United Nations General Assembly has – on more than 30 occasions – passed resolutions with near-unanimity, condemning the US embargo of Cuba