Cuban spy convicted –

MIAMI (EFE).— Former United States ambassador Víctor Manuel Rocha was sentenced yesterday in a federal court in Miami to 15 years in prison for charges related to espionage for Cuba for 40 years, following pleading guilty during a hearing held by the judge Beth Bloom.

Rocha, 73, who was a US ambassador and held senior positions in several Latin American countries, pleaded guilty to “acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government (Cuba)” and to conspiracy to commit the same crime and “defrauding the United States.” .

The former diplomat, of Colombian origin and who was arrested in Miami last December, was also accused of a dozen more charges related to fraud and falsification of documents.

By pleading guilty, Rocha admitted that, from 1973 until the time of his arrest, he secretly supported Cuba and its clandestine intelligence gathering mission once morest the United States by serving as an undercover agent for the Island, the Prosecutor’s Office explained in a statement.

In a hearing of regarding four hours, during which a dozen exile protesters crowded into the court to ask for a maximum sentence, Judge Bloom determined the sentence of 15 years and half a million dollars in fines.

Additionally, Rocha must cooperate with the United States and must forgo all future retirement benefits, including pension payments, owed to him from his former employment at the State Department.

The former ambassador must also assign to the United States any profits he is entitled to receive in connection with any publications related to his criminal conduct or his diplomatic service to the country.

“While he held various high positions in the United States government, (Rocha) secretly acted as an agent of the Cuban government. That is an astonishing betrayal of the American people,” prosecutor David Newman said at the end of the hearing in a press conference.

Just yesterday, the judge received petitions from exile, including those from the widow and daughter of the deceased Cuban opposition leader Oswaldo Payá.

Both expressed concern yesterday in a letter to the judge regarding the terms of the plea agreement between Rocha and the United States government, which was amended during the hearing.

Ofelia Acevedo Maura and Rosa María Payá Acevedo, widow and daughter, respectively, said they were “deeply concerned” regarding a guilty plea that “sets a dangerous precedent in cases of this magnitude” because it “eliminates the discretion” of the court to “address the full extent of the damage caused” by the accused.

“As victims of harsh injustices of the Cuban dictatorship,” we feel “deeply concerned” by the possibility that the United States government “is trying to eliminate the discretion” of the judge when handing down the sentence once morest Rocha, they added. in the letter.

Exile Petition

Cuban exile in Miami asks for a maximum sentence for former ambassador Víctor Rocha.

“Maximum sentence”

A Cuban exile coalition in Miami had called for a “maximum sentence.”

six crimes

Rocha faced a total of 15 charges for 6 crimes, and the exile expected 60 years in prison, because “not only did he betray the United States, but he may have had high complicity in crimes once morest humanity.”

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