By Mark Tanos
The Department of Justice (DOJ) moved Thursday to strip U.S. citizenship from a former American ambassador who was convicted of secretly working for communist Cuba.
Federal prosecutors filed a civil denaturalization complaint targeting Victor Manuel Rocha in the Southern District of Florida, according to a Justice Department announcement. The Colombian-born former diplomat is currently serving prison time after admitting in April 2024 that he covertly supported Havana’s intelligence networks, court documents read. He entered a guilty plea and received a conviction on charges of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and defraud the U.S. as well as acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. Officials are pursuing seven separate counts to void his citizenship.
“Under no circumstances should an agent of a foreign adversary be permitted to hold the title of American citizen,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said in the DOJ statement. “Our mission is clear: to root out these fraudsters and preserve the sanctity of the naturalization process for those who adhere to our laws.” (RELATED: Trump Admin Alleges Former Florida Mayor Schemed To Become Citizen)
Rocha climbed the ranks of the State Department for around two decades, holding posts in Argentina, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba before becoming U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, CNN reported. During meeting with an FBI agent pretending to be a representative of Cuban intelligence, he confessed to working on Cuba’s behalf for “decades,” labeled the United States “the enemy” and praised Fidel Castro, according to the court documents.
The naturalization application Rocha signed in 1978 contained sworn statements that he had no Communist Party of Cuba affiliation, did not back communism and stood for the U.S. Constitution, according to the DOJ. Prosecutors said each declaration was false. Rocha admitted that he had already begun spying for Havana in 1973, the DOJ said.
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom delivered a blunt assessment when she sentenced him to five years for conspiracy to act as an agent for a foreign government and 10 years for acting as a foreign agent, according to CNN. “You turned your back on this country,” she said.
