As the Rocha pleaded not guilty away from prison this week to help you fifteen government counts , FBI and you may State dept. detectives have been trying to discover the newest case’s greatest shed portion: just what longtime diplomat ages comparison, challenging by have a tendency to-murky intelligence world, which is expected to need decades.
S. counterintelligence authorities, Cuban cleverness defectors, and you may members of the family and you will acquaintances from Rocha to help you patch together what’s recognized up until now regarding his alleged betrayal, and the skipped clues and you will warning flag that may provides helped your stop scrutiny for many years.
It wasn’t only Rodriguez’s tipster – whom the guy would not select on AP however, says was recently questioned of the FBI. Authorities informed the new AP you to as early as 1987, the fresh new CIA are aware Castro got a good “super mole” burrowed deep during the U.S. regulators. Certain now suspect it may was indeed Rocha and therefore as no less than 2010 he may was in fact into the a preliminary list made available to the new FBI off you are able to Cuban spies high-up inside foreign plan circles.
Rocha’s attorney did not address messages seeking review. New FBI and you can CIA refused to review. The official Agency said from inside the a statement it can still work on related providers to “totally measure the international plan and you will federal cover ramifications of them fees.”
“This really is a good monumental fuck-right up,” said Peter Romero, a former assistant secretary regarding state to possess Latin The usa just who worked which have Rocha. “We are all starting numerous soul searching and no one can make some thing. The guy did an extraordinary occupations level his music.”
Humble Beginnings
He was created from inside the Colombia and at decades ten Д°zlandaca sД±cak kadД±nlar gone which have his widowed mom and two siblings so you’re able to New york. They resided for a time in the Harlem while his mother has worked in the a good sweatshop and you may had because of the with the aid of dinner stamps.
A talented soccer member which have a sharp intellect, he acquired a grant having minorities in the 1965 to visit This new Taft College, a top-notch boarding college or university within the Connecticut. Right-away he was catapulted as to the he named a good “ghetto” engulfed for the battle riots to help you a processed realm of Western wide range.
But among not totally all minorities in the college, Rocha says he sustained discrimination – together with a classmate just who refused to place that have your – a thing that powered an excellent grudge you to family think possess led him in order to have respect for Castro’s trend.
Out-of Taft, he went along to Yale, where he finished that have celebrates having a diploma when you look at the Latin-american knowledge, immediately after which onto scholar run Harvard and Georgetown.
It is not obvious exactly how Rocha was recruited from the Cuba however, prosecutors say it happened some time about seventies when he was however racking up stages and you can American college or university campuses have been teeming which have children sympathetic so you’re able to leftist grounds.
In 1973, the year the guy finished away from Yale, Rocha moved to Chile, in which prosecutors say the guy turned a beneficial “high friend” from Cuba’s cleverness agencies, the general Directorate off Intelligence, or DGI. One to same 12 months, the fresh CIA assisted topple the newest Castro-backed socialist government of Salvador Allende, replacing it having a brutal armed forces dictatorship.
In the exact same go out, Rocha registered the initial off their about three marriages, in order to an older Colombian woman he rarely spoke going to friends, and you can that is now lower than analysis to possess you’ll be able to links in order to Cuba, centered on anyone who has come expected because of the FBI. The brand new AP was struggling to achieve the lady or to track down one number of their wedding.
‘Most of the Element of A good PLAN’
After joining the overseas solution inside the 1981, one of Rocha’s first overseas posts are since a political-army affairs officer from inside the Honduras, where the guy informed the new Contras inside their combat Cuba-recognized leftist rebels for the neighboring Nicaragua.
