As Rocha pleaded not liable off jail this week to help you 15 federal counts , FBI and State department detectives was indeed working to understand the fresh new case’s most significant lost bit: exactly what the long time diplomat many years review, challenging of the will-murky cleverness industry, that’s expected to get years.
S. counterintelligence authorities, Cuban intelligence defectors, and you can household members and you can associates out-of Rocha in order to piece together what is actually recognized thus far out of their alleged betrayal, while the skipped clues and you will warning flag which could has helped him end analysis for a long time.
It wasn’t just Rodriguez’s tipster – which he refused to choose into the AP however, states are has just questioned because of the FBI. Officials told new AP you to definitely as early as 1987, the new CIA are aware Castro had a great “super mole” burrowed deep in U.S. bodies. Certain now believe it could was indeed Rocha which as the at the very least 2010 he might have been into a short checklist supplied to the latest FBI out of it is possible to Cuban spies high-up inside the international policy circles.
Rocha’s attorneys didn’t answer texts looking to comment. Brand new FBI and you may CIA rejected to remark. The state Agency told you when you look at the a statement it can continue steadily to focus on associated providers in order to “completely measure the foreign rules and you will federal safeguards ramifications of these charges.”
“This is certainly an effective monumental bang-upwards,” told you Peter Romero, an old secretary assistant regarding condition to possess Latin The usa which has worked with Rocha. “We are all doing plenty of soul searching and you will no one can come up with one thing. He performed a remarkable employment layer their tracks.”
Very humble Beginnings
He had been produced from inside the Colombia at ages ten gone having their widowed mother as well as 2 sisters to New york city. It stayed for a while from inside the Harlem when you are their mom has worked inside a beneficial sweatshop and you will had by with food seal of approval.
A skilled baseball pro which have a sharp intelligence, he acquired a grant having minorities in the 1965 to go to New Taft School, a top-notch boarding university from inside the Connecticut. Overnight he had been catapulted to what the guy entitled a good “ghetto” engulfed into the battle riots to a processed world of American money.
But as one of never assume all minorities from the university, Rocha claims the guy suffered discrimination – plus an excellent classmate exactly who refused to area with your – something which powered a great grudge you to definitely members of the family suspect have led him to esteem Castro’s revolution.
Regarding Taft, the guy went along to Yale, where he graduated that have celebrates that have a degree inside Latin-american education, right after which on to graduate manage Harvard and you can Georgetown.
It is far from clear just how Rocha was employed by Cuba but prosecutors state it LoveFort dato just happened a little while on the 70s when he was nevertheless racking up degrees and you can Western university campuses have been teeming having students sympathetic to leftist explanations.
In the 1973, the entire year he graduated away from Yale, Rocha moved to help you Chile, in which prosecutors state he turned into a good “great friend” regarding Cuba’s cleverness institution, all round Directorate off Intelligence, or DGI. That same year, the CIA aided topple brand new Castro-supported socialist bodies regarding Salvador Allende, replacement it that have an intense armed forces dictatorship.
In the same go out, Rocha entered the initial of his around three marriages, so you can an older Colombian woman the guy hardly spoke planning to nearest and dearest, and you may who is now less than scrutiny to have you’ll be able to connections so you’re able to Cuba, considering those who have been questioned from the FBI. Brand new AP was struggling to get to the woman or to track down people checklist of its wedding.
‘All Part of A PLAN’
Once joining the overseas solution within the 1981, certainly Rocha’s basic overseas posts is since the a political-armed forces situations administrator for the Honduras, where he informed the fresh Contras in their fight against Cuba-recognized leftist rebels when you look at the nearby Nicaragua.
