A former U.S. diplomat who pleaded guilty to serving as a Cuban agent in what the Justice Department called one of the U.S. government’s largest and longest-running infiltration operations was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday.

Victor Manuel Rocha, who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, pleaded guilty to two charges, including serving as an illegal foreign agent. He was initially charged in December.

For more than four decades, including 20 years at the State Department, Rocha, 73, secretly supported Cuba’s ruling Communist Party and helped the country gather intelligence against Washington, according to U.S. prosecutors.

“Today’s guilty plea ends more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by Mr. Rocha,” David Newman, the Justice Department’s top national security official, said at a news conference in Miami. “Mr. Rocha spent much of his life. They are all living a lie.”

According to a federal criminal complaint filed in Miami, Rocha admitted to working for Cuba for decades and in a series of meetings in 2022 and 2023 with an undercover FBI agent posing as a representative of Cuba’s foreign intelligence service. Brag about your ability to avoid detection. court.

“What we do is huge. It’s not just a grand slam,” Rocha told the undercover agent, according to the indictment.

Rocha’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment. Rocha agreed to plead guilty as part of a deal with federal prosecutors that required him to reveal details of his interactions with Cuban intelligence services.

But U.S. officials say they may never know the full extent of Rocha’s cooperation with Havana.

Prosecutors said Rocha sought a position that would give him access to sensitive information and influence on U.S. foreign policy.

Court documents show that Rocha worked at the State Department from 1981 to 2002, including serving as a member of the White House National Security Council from 1994 to 1995.