A retired State Department official, Manuel Rocha, has been accused by federal prosecutors of working as a covert agent for Cuba since 1981. 

According to a criminal complaint filed in Miami, Mr Rocha allegedly supported Cuba’s intelligence mission against the United States of America, meeting with Cuban spy agency handlers as recently as 2017. 

Mr Rocha was accused of serving as an illegal agent of a foreign government, along with two other charges. 

During his first court appearance in Miami on Monday, Mr Rocha, 73, was visibly emotional. He did not enter a plea, and a prosecutor hinted at the possibility of additional charges being presented to a grand jury. Chief Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres scheduled a detention hearing for Wednesday.

In what could mark over 40 years of espionage, Mr Rocha, who served in various State Department roles and as ambassador to Bolivia, claimed to have significantly bolstered the Cuban revolution.

Mr Rocha managed Latin America affairs for over two decades in various capacities at the State Department during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. This included his role as the ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002. In more recent times, the Colombia-native, raised in New York, served as an adviser to the U.S. military command overseeing Cuba.

The case alongside several extraordinary cases relating to foreign espionage is being prosecuted under the powers of Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who told reporters in Washington that the action “exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign agent.”

He added that Mr. Rocha had “sought out employment with the U.S. government that would provide him with access to non-public information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy.”