As the Rocha pleaded not guilty away from jail this week to 15 federal counts , FBI and you will State dept. investigators have been working to discover the case’s greatest missing portion: what the longtime diplomat many years research, challenging by commonly-murky cleverness business, which is anticipated to take decades.
S. counterintelligence authorities, Cuban cleverness defectors, and Clicking Here you will nearest and dearest and you can colleagues away from Rocha in order to patch together what is actually identified to date away from his so-called betrayal, together with overlooked clues and you may warning flags that may provides aided him avoid scrutiny for many years.
It wasn’t simply Rodriguez’s tipster – which he refused to choose to your AP however, states try recently interviewed by FBI. Authorities told brand new AP one to as early as 1987, new CIA are aware Castro got an excellent “very mole” burrowed deep inside the U.S. authorities. Particular now believe it could was in fact Rocha and this as the at the very least 2010 he may have been toward an initial list supplied to new FBI out-of you can Cuban spies high-up into the international rules circles.
Rocha’s attorney didn’t address texts trying feedback. The fresh FBI and CIA rejected so you’re able to comment. The official Agency told you into the a statement it will continue to run associated enterprises so you can “fully assess the international coverage and federal safety implications of these charge.”
“That is a great monumental fuck-right up,” said Peter Romero, a former assistant secretary away from state for Latin America who worked having Rocha. “All of us are performing a number of soul searching and you may nobody is able to assembled some thing. He performed an amazing employment level his tracks.”
Modest Beginnings
He was born in the Colombia as well as years 10 moved that have their widowed mother and two siblings so you’re able to New york. It resided for a time in the Harlem when you’re their mommy worked within the an effective sweatshop and got of the with eating seal of approval.
A skilled soccer athlete that have a sharp intelligence, the guy obtained a grant for minorities for the 1965 to attend The brand new Taft College, at the very top boarding school inside Connecticut. Straight away he had been catapulted from what he entitled an effective “ghetto” engulfed within the competition riots so you can a refined world of Western wide range.
However, among only a few minorities at school, Rocha claims the guy sustained discrimination – together with an effective classmate exactly who would not room that have him – a thing that fueled an excellent grudge you to relatives think could have provided your so you’re able to trust Castro’s trend.
Out of Taft, the guy decided to go to Yale, in which the guy graduated that have remembers with a diploma during the Latin-american degree, following on to graduate run Harvard and you may Georgetown.
It’s not obvious exactly how Rocha might have been hired by the Cuba but prosecutors state it simply happened some time on 1970s whenever he had been nevertheless accumulating amounts and you can American college campuses had been teeming that have children sympathetic in order to leftist explanations.
From inside the 1973, the entire year the guy graduated regarding Yale, Rocha journeyed so you can Chile, where prosecutors state he became a great “higher pal” regarding Cuba’s cleverness institution, the entire Directorate out-of Cleverness, otherwise DGI. You to definitely exact same seasons, this new CIA helped topple the new Castro-recognized socialist regulators off Salvador Allende, substitution they that have an intense army dictatorship.
Inside the same go out, Rocha entered the first of his around three marriage ceremonies, in order to an adult Colombian woman he rarely talked going to household members, and that is now not as much as analysis having you can easily links to Cuba, according to those who have already been asked from the FBI. The newest AP are incapable of get to the woman or to locate people listing of their relationship.
‘The Part of A beneficial PLAN’
Shortly after signing up for brand new overseas service for the 1981, certainly Rocha’s first to another country posts are due to the fact a governmental-armed forces situations administrator for the Honduras, where he told the latest Contras within their fight against Cuba-backed leftist rebels inside neighboring Nicaragua.