Justice Department Sues to Revoke Citizenship of Convicted Cuban Spy Victor Manuel Rocha

MIAMI, May 9, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil denaturalization complaint against Victor Manuel Rocha on May 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, per a department press release.

Rocha, a Colombian-born naturalized U.S. citizen who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 1999 to 2002 and held other senior State Department posts, was convicted in 2024 after pleading guilty to one count of acting as an agent of the Republic of Cuba without notifying the U.S. government.

Federal prosecutors said Rocha provided sensitive information to Cuba’s intelligence service over more than four decades while holding security clearances.

The complaint seeks to revoke Rocha’s U.S. citizenship, which he obtained through naturalization. Under federal law, citizenship secured through concealment of material facts or willful misrepresentation during the naturalization process can be revoked in civil court.

If the court grants the complaint, Rocha would lose his citizenship and face removal proceedings to Colombia, his country of birth.

The filing marks the latest step in a case that began with Rocha’s 2023 arrest. He pleaded guilty in April 2024 in the Southern District of Florida to the unregistered-agent charge. Sentencing remains pending on that conviction. The civil denaturalization suit runs parallel to the criminal case and does not require a separate criminal conviction on fraud grounds.

Downstream, a successful judgment would set a precedent for denaturalization of other former officials convicted of long-term clandestine work on behalf of foreign governments. The case will require the district court to examine Rocha’s naturalization application and determine whether he lied about his Cuban ties.

A final order would also direct U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to initiate deportation once citizenship is revoked. The ruling could affect any pensions or benefits tied to Rocha’s federal service that require U.S. citizenship.

This action continues the Justice Department’s use of civil denaturalization to target individuals who obtained citizenship while concealing espionage or foreign-agent activity. The department has pursued similar complaints against former intelligence officers and agents of adversarial governments in recent years.

Rocha’s guilty plea remains the most senior known penetration of the State Department by Cuban intelligence.