Former US Ambassador to Bolivia Accused of Calling Cuban President 'Comandante'

A former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia has been taken into custody over allegations of spying for Cuba.

The incident has become a major international headline as news related to the serious spying incident has been released.

Former US ambassador called Castro the 'Comandante,' labeled US 'the enemy': DOJ https://t.co/c4Dn8bqIlq

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 5, 2023

"At the top of a meeting of the DOJ's Reproductive Rights Task Force, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland first announced a 'significant national security related enforcement action' the Justice Department has taken in charging Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, with 'illegally acting as an agent of a foreign government,'" Fox News reported.

"Rocha, who is from Miami, Florida, is a former U.S. Department of State employee who served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 and ultimately as U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002," it added.

The United States charged a former US ambassador to Bolivia with spying for Cuba for over 40 years, in what the Justice Department described as one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the US government by a foreign agent https://t.co/MfYMcpWveH pic.twitter.com/6UjAL7PLd9

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 4, 2023

"In a court document filed in the southern district of Florida, the U.S. accuses Rocha of having secretly supported Cuba and its clandestine intelligence-gathering mission against Washington since 1981," Reuters reported.

"Rocha admitted his decades of work for Cuba in a series of meetings in 2022 and 2023 with an undercover FBI agent who posed as a covert Cuban General Directorate of Intelligence representative, according to the court document," it continued.

The charges have led to serious questions related to spying by the Cuban government for Bolivia and beyond.

The longtime former ambassador's background allowed access to a wide variety of information that could be of vast concern related to national security.

The ex-ambassador was detained while in Miami, with the Justice Department sharing only limited information on the matter.

The details are likely to unfold further as the incident is considered more fully ahead of the possible hearings in the days ahead.