An ex-U.S. ambassador will plead guilty to spying on behalf of Cuban intelligence for decades, bringing a swift end to a stunning case of high-level subterfuge. Manuel Rocha, 73, told the judge on Thursday that he will admit to several federal charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government, potentially facing a sentence of several years in prison. According to the feds, Rocha’s double-dealing goes back to at least 1981, the year he entered U.S. foreign service, and includes feeding false information to U.S. officials and meeting with Cuban spies. Prosecutors presented as evidence several of Rocha’s own admissions made to an undercover FBI agent that Rocha believed was a Cuban operative. Rocha allegedly referred to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as “Comandante,” decried the U.S. as “the enemy,” and boasted about more than 40 years as a Cuban mole at the center of U.S. foreign policy circles. He served two decades as a U.S. diplomat, including as the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia.
