This new AP talked having a couple of dozen former senior U
Because Rocha pleaded not guilty out of prison recently so you can fifteen government matters , FBI and State department investigators was indeed attempting to decipher the fresh case’s most significant lost piece: exactly what the longtime diplomat ages testing, challenging by will-murky intelligence industry, that’s likely to simply take years.
S. counterintelligence authorities, Cuban intelligence defectors, and you can family and you will colleagues of Rocha so you can piece together what exactly is understood up until now out of their alleged betrayal, in addition to skipped clues and you will red flags that could provides aided him prevent analysis for decades.
It was not only Rodriguez’s tipster — exactly who the guy would not choose on AP however, claims are has just interviewed by the FBI. Officials informed brand new AP you to definitely as soon as 1987, new CIA try aware Castro got a great “very mole” burrowed deep into the U.S. regulators. Some today suspect it may was Rocha and that given that at the very least 2010 he may had been for the a preliminary list made available to the brand new FBI out of you’ll be able to Cuban spies high up inside the overseas rules circles.
Rocha’s lawyer failed to answer texts trying to feedback. This new FBI and you will CIA refuted in order to feedback. The official Department told you during the a statement it will continue to work with related providers so you can “fully measure the international policy and you may federal security effects ones charges.”
“This will be good monumental fuck-upwards,” told you Peter Romero, a former assistant assistant out of county for Latin The united states just who worked that have Rocha. “We’re all undertaking loads of soul-searching and you can no one can developed one thing. He did an extraordinary business level his music.”
Humble Origins
He was born for the Colombia as well as age 10 moved which have their widowed mommy as well as 2 siblings so you’re able to Nyc. They resided for a time for the Harlem when you find yourself their mommy did for the a good sweatshop and you can got because of the by using food seal of approval.
An experienced basketball member that have a sharp https://worldbrides.org/no/varme-latviske-bruder/ intellect, he won a scholarship having minorities into the 1965 to attend The latest Taft College or university, a top-notch boarding school during the Connecticut. Straight away he had been catapulted from what the guy named an excellent “ghetto” engulfed within the battle riots in order to a refined field of Western riches.
But among never assume all minorities at the college or university, Rocha claims the guy suffered discrimination — plus a great classmate which refused to space that have him — something fueled a great grudge one to members of the family believe possess added your so you’re able to trust Castro’s revolution.
Out of Taft, he went along to Yale, in which he graduated which have honors having a degree inside the Latin american degree, immediately after which onto graduate manage Harvard and you may Georgetown.
It’s not clear how Rocha was recruited from the Cuba however, prosecutors say it simply happened a little while on the 1970s whenever he was nonetheless racking up amounts and you will American college or university campuses was teeming which have pupils sympathetic to leftist causes.
In 1973, the season the guy finished of Yale, Rocha traveled to help you Chile, in which prosecutors say he turned a great “high friend” out of Cuba’s cleverness agency, the overall Directorate regarding Cleverness, otherwise DGI. You to definitely same seasons, the fresh CIA helped topple the brand new Castro-backed socialist government away from Salvador Allende, replacement they having a raw armed forces dictatorship.
Around the same time, Rocha joined the original of their three marriages, so you’re able to an older Colombian woman he rarely talked about to family, and you may who’s today under analysis having you are able to ties to Cuba, based on anyone who has started questioned of the FBI. The newest AP was incapable of get to the woman or to obtain any listing of its relationship.
‘All of the Part of A great PLAN’
Shortly after signing up for the fresh new international service when you look at the 1981, one of Rocha’s earliest overseas postings was as a political-military activities manager inside Honduras, where he advised the Contras within their fight against Cuba-backed leftist rebels in surrounding Nicaragua.
