Ex-U.S. ambassador gets 15 years for acting as Cuban spy

Former U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Manuel Rocha received a 15 month prison sentence on Friday after pleading guilty to working as a spy for the Cuban government.

Rocha was arrested and charged in December of last year. The Justice Department had alleged that he worked on behalf of the Cuban government without registering as a foreign agent as required by law.

"Your actions were a direct attack to our democracy and the safety of our citizens," said U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom, according to the Associated Press. The sentence came as part of a plea agreement that also saw him agree to pay $500,000.

Rocha served as ambassador to Bolivia from 2000-2002. He entered the foreign service in 1981 and was ultimately exposed when an FBI agent posing as a Cuban intelligence agent managed to record him making compromising statements in which he praised Communist dictator Fidel Castro and boasted of his more than 40 years spent as an agent of Havana, according to court records.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.