34 MARCH 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL FEATURE David C. Adams is an award-winning freelance reporter for The New York Times and other publications. He is also the Caribbean correspondent for the Committee to Protect Journalists. In the 1980s, Adams covered the civil wars in Central America and lived in Honduras between 1987 and 1988, where he coincided with Manuel Rocha. What motivated this U.S. ambassador to betray his own country during his decades in the Foreign Service? BY DAVID C. ADAMS The Puzzling Story of Manuel Rocha, U.S. Diplomat and Secret Agent for Cuba Some diplomats would consider an early career posting to U.S. Consulate General Florence a stroke of good fortune, if not necessarily the fast track to ambassadorship. But when second-tour Foreign Service Officer Manuel Rocha arrived in 1985 to the capital of Tuscany, home to some of the masterpieces of Renaissance art and architecture, his marriage was floundering, and he languished. So when the U.S. ambassador to Honduras, Everett “Ted” Briggs, asked him to move to Tegucigalpa, he jumped at the chance. Manuel Rocha sent this photo to former CIA officer Fulton Armstrong in November 2016 with a note: “In Havana last Thursday.” COURTESY OF FULTON ARMSTRONG
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