Since the Rocha pleaded not liable off prison this week to fifteen government counts , FBI and State dept. investigators were attempting to understand the latest case’s most significant destroyed section: what the long time diplomat age comparison, challenging because of the usually-murky intelligence industry, that is expected to just take years.
S. counterintelligence officials, Cuban cleverness defectors, and you may members of the family and you may colleagues of Rocha to help you patch together what exactly is understood yet off his alleged betrayal, and skipped clues and warning flag that could features aided him end analysis for many years.
It wasn’t simply Rodriguez’s tipster – exactly who the guy refused to choose to the AP but says are has just interviewed of the FBI. Officials told the fresh new AP one to as early as 1987, the new CIA try alert Castro had good “awesome mole” burrowed deep for the U.S. government. Some now suspect it might was Rocha and that as the about 2010 he might was in fact to your a primary listing made available to brand new FBI out of you’ll be able to Cuban spies high up when you look at the international plan sectors.
Rocha’s attorney did not respond to messages seeking to remark. The new FBI and CIA refuted so you’re able to feedback. The state Agency said in an announcement it can consistently work at related enterprises in order to “totally assess the foreign coverage and you can federal safety effects ones charge.”
“That is a beneficial monumental fuck-upwards,” said Peter Romero, an old assistant assistant regarding condition getting Latin The united states which spent some time working with Rocha. “We’re all carrying out a good amount of soul-searching and you can no-one can put together something. The guy performed an extraordinary job level his tunes.”
Modest Origins
He was born inside Colombia at ages ten went that have their widowed mother and two sisters in order to New york city. They existed for a while in the Harlem when you are his mom did for the a good sweatshop and got of the with the aid of eating press.
An experienced sports player having a sharp intelligence, he acquired a scholarship to possess minorities inside 1965 to attend The newest Taft School, a top-notch boarding school into the Connecticut. Straight away he was catapulted as to the he called a great “ghetto” engulfed in the battle riots to help you a refined realm of Western wealth.
However, among not all the minorities at the college, Rocha says the guy suffered discrimination – along with a good classmate exactly who would not space with him – something that powered an excellent grudge you to nearest and dearest think could have contributed him to trust Castro’s trend.
Regarding Taft, the guy decided to go to Yale, where the guy graduated which have celebrates having a diploma for the Latin-american knowledge, immediately after which onto graduate work on Harvard and you will Georgetown.
It’s not obvious just how Rocha might have been employed by Rus bekar kadД±nlar Cuba but prosecutors say it happened a little while on seventies when he had been however racking up degree and you will Western university campuses was indeed teeming that have pupils sympathetic in order to leftist grounds.
During the 1973, the year the guy finished out of Yale, Rocha traveled to help you Chile, where prosecutors state the guy turned into an excellent “high pal” from Cuba’s intelligence department, the entire Directorate regarding Intelligence, or DGI. You to definitely exact same 12 months, the newest CIA assisted topple the new Castro-recognized socialist authorities of Salvador Allende, substitution it having an intense military dictatorship.
In the same time, Rocha registered the initial out of his three marriage ceremonies, to an adult Colombian woman he hardly talked going to nearest and dearest, and you may who is now less than analysis for you’ll be able to connections so you can Cuba, predicated on anyone who has been questioned from the FBI. The fresh AP is actually incapable of achieve the lady otherwise to locate one listing of the wedding.
‘All Part of An excellent PLAN’
Just after signing up for this new foreign service during the 1981, among Rocha’s basic to another country postings are as the a political-armed forces factors administrator inside the Honduras, in which the guy advised the latest Contras within their combat Cuba-supported leftist rebels when you look at the nearby Nicaragua.