THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2025 39 Instead of offering his sympathy, Otero recounts, Rocha told her, “How stupid can your husband be? Doesn’t he know they murder people in this country for that sort of thing?” To her dismay, he added: “If you need help with all this, don’t call me, don’t reach out to me.” Some embassy colleagues found Rocha arrogant but good company. Lindwall recalled Rocha as “aloof and a fancy dresser—carefully tailored suits, a handkerchief sticking out of his suit coat pockets, expensive ties, cuff links. I thought it was a bit over the top for Honduras, but most of us chalked it up to his being a ladies’ man.” Others recall him as ambitious and eager to advance his career. “I just thought he was an aggressive climber. And I didn’t trust him, but not because I thought he was working for anybody else,” said John Penfold, the embassy’s deputy chief of mission. Briggs recalls Rocha coming to see him one day on a personal matter. He told Briggs his marriage was ending. “He got all teary and very emotional. It was affecting his work, and he was miserable,” said Briggs. “I bucked him up and told him, ‘You are a great officer, you’ve got to get over this, and we’ll give you some slack,’” the ambassador said. A Swift Kick to the Gut When Rocha was departing post, Briggs hosted a farewell party for him in the Front Office. “Briggs was not one to lavish praise on anyone, but he talked about Rocha as if he was the embodiment of every virtue and skill a young diplomat could ever hope to aspire to,” Lindwall recalled. “I had never heard an ambassador speak so effusively of a staff member. I took it for granted that Rocha must have been one of the best of the best,” he added. News of Rocha’s December 2023 arrest spread quickly among his old colleagues. “We all feel like we have received a swift kick to the gut,” Amb. Briggs told this reporter. “My colleagues and I have racked our brains about what he did,” he said, adding, “Manuel was the antithesis of a Cuban revolutionary.” n
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