According to AFP, the former US ambassador is accused of spying for “more than 40 years” for Cuba, a historical enemy of Washington.

The case is “one of the longest infiltrations of the US government by a foreign agent at the highest level,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, was ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002 and a member of the National Security Council, a White House body, from 1994 to 1995.

“We believe that for over 40 years, Victor Manuel Rocha worked as an agent of the Cuban state,” Garland said.

The former diplomat “sought and obtained positions in the US government apparatus that would give him access to non-public information and the opportunity to influence US foreign policy,” he added.

Born in Colombia and naturalized in the United States, Rocha began working for the communist Cuban government in 1981 in its main intelligence agency, according to the indictment.

According to the Justice Department, he continued his espionage work for Cuba even after he left the State Department in 2002 after about three decades of service, including as an adviser to the US Southern Command, the body that coordinates US military forces in the region, which includes Cuba

According to the Justice Department, Roshi was approached by an FBI agent posing as a Cuban intelligence agent in 2022 and 2023.

He “always referred to the United States as ‘the enemy’ and used the word ‘we’ to describe Cuba and myself,” he said.

Rocha is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing in federal court in Miami on Monday.