Former top U.S. diplomat Manuel Rocha sentenced to 15 years in prison for being a Cuban spy

Manuel Rocha, a former top U.S. diplomat, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to being a Cuban spy for decades.

He will also pay a $500,000 fine for conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government.

Rocha's surprising plea deal leaves questions unanswered about the nature and extensions of his work for Havana while at the U.S. department.

According to The Guardian, prosecutors said the details of this remain classified. They didn't tell the judge when they discovered he was a spy.

The State Department said its conducting an assessment of the extension of his work to "fully assess the foreign policy and national security implications of these charges."

Rocha, 73, was arrested in Miami in December after discussing his actions with an undercover FBI agent who pretended to be a Cuban intelligence office called Miguel.

The recorded meetings, which took place between 2022 and 2023, show Rocha describing the U.S. as "the enemy" and saying his greatest goal when working for the State Department for almost 40 years was "strengthening the Cuban revolution."

He was initially indicted by a federal grand jury in December. Attorney General Merrick Garland described the case as "one of the highest-reaching and longest standing infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign agent."

Even though Rocha was discovered recently, a report by The Associated Press showed overlooked evidence about his work, including a direct warning that a CIA operative received about 20 years ago.

The CIA was also aware in 1987 that the Fidel Castro regime had a "super mole" inside the U.S. government.

Born in Colombia, Rocha moved at age 10 with his widowed mother and two siblings to New York City. They lived for a while in Harlem while his mother worked in a sweatshop and got by with the help of food stamps.

He went to The Taft School, an elite boarding school in Connecticut, on a scholarship for minorities. There, he often mentioned suffering from discrimination— including a classmate who refused to room with him— given the fact that he was one of only a few minorities at the school.

Once he finished his studies, Rocha would go into public service, where he built an extensive resume with the American government. He was the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia in 2002 and and Deputy Mission Chief to Argentina between 1997 and 2000. He also held positions at the embassies to Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic during his stint at the State Department.