A court in Miami (USA) postponed the hearing of the former American diplomat to January 12 Victor Manuel Rochawho is accused of several charges related to espionage for Cuba for 40 years.
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The former diplomat had a hearing this Tuesday, the second in the process since he was arrested, but Judge Edwin G. Torres postponed it today for a month after accepting a request from his lawyer, Jacqueline M. Arango.
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At that hearing, all charges will be formally presented to Rocha, a 73-year-old Colombian who became a US citizen in 1978.
Rocha faces a total of fifteen counts for six crimes, which together would carry a maximum prison sentence of 60 years if found guilty during trialwhich is scheduled for next January 29.
Among the charges is one for “acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government (Cuba)” and another for conspiracy to commit the same crime and “defraud the United States.”
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He also has five counts of wire fraud, three for “making a false statement in a passport application,” four for “use of a passport obtained by a false statement” and one for “false statements and representations,” according to the court document. accusation.
Between 1981 and 2002, Rocha was employed by the State Department and held various positions at the United States embassies in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico and Argentina..
The former ambassador is accused of committing multiple federal crimes by acting secretly for some forty years as an “agent of the Government of the Republic of Cuba,” according to the US.
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Rocha was arrested in Miami on the 1st. December after confess his activities to an FBI agent who posed as another Cuban spy.
According to the indictment, between 2022 and 2023 there were three meetings between Rocha and an FBI special agent who pretended to be “Miguel”, a representative of the General Directorate of Intelligence of Cuba.
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In those meetings, which were recorded and held in Spanish, the former diplomat constantly referred to the United States as “the enemy” and confessed that his greatest concern when he worked for the State Department was “strengthening the Cuban Revolution.”
EFE
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