Manuel Rocha, a former State Department employee and U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, appears in federal court Friday afternoon. Rocha was arrested and charged with being a Cuban agent in December.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In Miami, a former State Department employee and ambassador was formally charged today with being an agent of the Cuban government. Manuel Rocha pleaded not guilty to the charges. Rocha is 73. He has been in federal detention since his arrest in December. Prosecutors say he was recruited by Cuba in the 1970s and acted as an illegal foreign agent throughout his two-decade career as an American diplomat. NPR’s Greg Allen is following the case and joins us from Miami. Hey, Greg.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.
KELLY: All right. Fill us in. What happened at this arraignment today?
ALLEN: Well, Rocha was there in federal court in Miami. His attorney filed a waiver this week saying he wasn’t going to be there, but he showed up anyway. He was handcuffed, dressed in a khaki prison jumpsuit with a full beard. It’s the first time we’ve seen him since his arrest on December 1. The arraignment took just, of course, a few minutes. His attorney said he was pleading not guilty and was requesting a jury trial. The magistrate judge asked Rocha if he understood the charges against him, and he said, I do, Your Honor. Rocha hasn’t requested a bail hearing, so he’ll remain in detention. And the judge set a trial date in late March.
KELLY: And fill in a little bit more detail, a little more color about what exactly he is charged with.
ALLEN: Right. Well, you know, he’s charged with acting as an illegal foreign agent for Cuba. And there’s other charges in there, a conspiracy charge and numerous counts of fraud. The indictment says after he was recruited by the Cuban intelligence agency, he became a U.S. citizen and then applied for work at the State Department. And from 1981 to 2002, he served in a variety of diplomatic…
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