U.S. Moves to Strip Citizenship of Former Ambassador

(MENAFN) Federal prosecutors in the United States are attempting to cancel the American citizenship of jailed former U.S. Ambassador Victor Manuel Rocha, arguing that he acquired it through deception while secretly supporting Cuba for more than 50 years.

A filing submitted to a federal court in Miami claims that Rocha misrepresented his political affiliations and denied any involvement with Communist movements or criminal activity during his 1977–1978 naturalization process, all while allegedly continuing covert work for Cuba, according to a report by a news agency on Friday.

Rocha, originally from Colombia, was indicted in December 2023 on accusations of conspiring to function as an agent of a foreign government and defrauding the United States. He later entered a guilty plea in 2024, admitting to acting as an unlawful foreign operative and committing fraud against the U.S. A judge remarked that he had “betrayed the United States” for over five decades.

Court documents also indicate that Rocha acknowledged in a 2024 plea agreement that his clandestine cooperation with Cuban intelligence began in 1973, several years before he became a U.S. citizen. Prosecutors say he later leveraged his official government positions to advance Havana’s strategic objectives.

“Victor Manuel Rocha was not a low-level operative. He was a former United States Ambassador and senior government official who admitted he secretly served the Cuban regime for decades,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quinones stated in a press release issued Friday morning.

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