Havana’s Man in Washington

I’d like to read a nice long case study at some point on how Cuba has managed repeated penetrations of the US intelligence community and diplomatic establishment:

Federal prosecutors have charged Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, of Miami, Florida, 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, with committing multiple federal crimes by secretly acting for decades as an agent of the government of the Republic of Cuba.

“This action exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We allege that for over 40 years, Victor Manuel Rocha served as an agent of the Cuban government and sought out and obtained positions within the United States government that would provide him with access to non-public information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy. Those who have the privilege of serving in the government of the United States are given an enormous amount of trust by the public we serve. To betray that trust by falsely pledging loyalty to the United States while serving a foreign power is a crime that will be met with the full force of the Justice Department.”

Haven’t read closely enough into the cases to determine whether they’re connected in any fashion, although I’d guess both the CIA and FBI are digging into that hard at the moment… It’s obvious why the United States is Cuba’s number one intelligence target, although somewhat less obvious why the US intelligence community struggles to manage that threat. Perhaps something about the sensitivities of the exile community that make it difficult to probe Cuban communications? Or perhaps the IC just doesn’t give a damn about Cuba anymore and simply can’t be bothered to focus on Cuban intel operations?