A former top American diplomat has been indicted in the USA because he is said to have secretly worked on behalf of Cuba for decades.
The public prosecutor’s office accuses the now 73-year-old man of abusing his position of trust in the US government “to promote the interests of a foreign power.” He is said to have provided the Cuban secret service with partly secret information since 1981. He is said to have concealed trips abroad from the US government, for example to meet with employees of the Cuban secret service.
According to the Justice Department, the man, originally from Colombia and later naturalized in the United States, worked, among other things, on the National Security Council of the US government from 1994 to 1995 and as US ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002. He worked in various positions at the US State Department for more than twenty years. From 2006 to 2012 he was an advisor to the commander of the US military’s Southern Command, whose area of responsibility includes Cuba.
“Decades” of work for Cuba admitted
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the indictment “exposes one of the most far-reaching and longest-running infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent.” FBI Director Christopher Wray said the man violated his oath to protect and defend the Constitution and betrayed the trust of the American people.
According to the Justice Department, the man admitted to his “decades-long” work for Cuba during a series of meetings in 2022 and 2023 with an undercover FBI agent. In order to get the man to confess, the FBI investigator posed as a secret employee of the Cuban secret service. During the meeting, the man behaved like a “Cuban agent” and consistently referred to the USA as the “enemy”.
Now the 73-year-old must appear in court in the US state of Florida. US media had previously reported that the man had been arrested at his home in Miami.
