The latest AP talked with two dozen former senior You

As Rocha pleaded simple out of prison recently in order to 15 federal counts , FBI and you may State department detectives was indeed attempting to discover this new case’s biggest shed piece: what the longtime diplomat many years testing, complicated by tend to-murky intelligence world, which is expected to bring age.

S. counterintelligence authorities, Cuban intelligence defectors, and you may friends and you will colleagues away from Rocha so you’re able to patch together what’s recognized thus far out of their so-called betrayal, therefore the overlooked clues and you can warning flags that will features helped him end scrutiny for many years.

It was not simply Rodriguez’s tipster – just who he refused to select into the AP however, says try has just interviewed by the FBI. Authorities informed the brand new AP you to as early as klikkaa lisää 1987, the CIA is actually aware Castro got a good “very mole” burrowed deep from inside the You.S. bodies. Specific today suspect it might have been Rocha and that since about 2010 he may was indeed towards the a preliminary record supplied to the FBI of you’ll Cuban spies high up from inside the overseas coverage circles.

Rocha’s attorneys didn’t respond to messages trying feedback. The fresh new FBI and you can CIA declined to help you remark. The official Service told you during the an announcement it can continue to work at relevant enterprises to “fully assess the international coverage and you can national cover effects of those charge.”

“This can be a monumental shag-up,” said Peter Romero, an old secretary assistant away from state for Latin The united states exactly who did which have Rocha. “We are all doing enough soul-searching and you may nobody can developed some thing. The guy performed a remarkable employment level their tracks.”

Humble Beginnings

He had been created in the Colombia and at decades ten moved having his widowed mommy and two siblings so you’re able to Nyc. They lived for a while during the Harlem while his mom did during the good sweatshop and you can had because of the by using food stamps.

An experienced sports player with a-sharp intelligence, he acquired a scholarship having minorities inside the 1965 to attend The latest Taft University, an elite boarding school into the Connecticut. Right-away he was skyrocketed as to the the guy entitled a beneficial “ghetto” engulfed inside race riots so you’re able to a refined field of Western wealth.

But as one of never assume all minorities in the college, Rocha states he suffered discrimination – as well as a beneficial classmate which refused to place having your – a thing that powered a grudge one loved ones think may have provided him so you can trust Castro’s wave.

From Taft, the guy went along to Yale, in which the guy finished with remembers which have a degree in Latin american studies, after which on to graduate manage Harvard and you may Georgetown.

It isn’t obvious exactly how Rocha was employed because of the Cuba but prosecutors say it happened a bit on seventies whenever he was however racking up degree and you can Western college campuses was indeed teeming which have students sympathetic to help you leftist factors.

During the 1973, the year he finished out of Yale, Rocha traveled in order to Chile, in which prosecutors state the guy became an excellent “higher friend” away from Cuba’s cleverness department, the general Directorate out of Cleverness, otherwise DGI. You to definitely same season, the latest CIA helped topple the new Castro-recognized socialist bodies regarding Salvador Allende, replacing they which have a raw military dictatorship.

Within the same day, Rocha entered the initial out-of their about three marriage ceremonies, to an older Colombian lady the guy hardly spoke going to household members, and you can that is now lower than analysis having you are able to links so you can Cuba, predicated on whoever has been asked because of the FBI. The new AP is unable to reach the woman or to acquire any checklist of its marriage.

‘All the Part of A PLAN’

Immediately after joining brand new overseas services when you look at the 1981, among Rocha’s earliest overseas listings try given that a political-military items administrator into the Honduras, where he told the new Contras within fight Cuba-recognized leftist rebels in neighboring Nicaragua.