When the former US ambassador to Bolivia, Manuel Rocha, was arrested in Miami recently and charged by his previous employer – the US government – with having spent more than 40 years as a Cuban agent, it amounted to one of the biggest spying scandals involving the communist-run island this century.
The US Attorney General, Merrick Garland, called Mr Rocha’s alleged crimes “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the US government by a foreign agent”.
While Manuel Rocha is yet to enter a plea, many observers remain baffled as to how he could have risen so high in the US diplomatic service while evading detection for so long, apparently honing a reputation as a hard-nosed conservative while secretly harbouring a deep-seated allegiance to the Cuban Revolution.
