Venezuela’s consul general in Miami has been declared to be persona non grata and must leave the United States, a State Department spokesman said on Sunday.
No reasons were given for the decision to expel Livia Acosta Noguera, who has headed Venezuela’s consulate in Miami since March 2011.
The Venezuelan Embassy in Washington was informed of the decision Friday and Acosta must depart the United States by Tuesday.
There was no immediate response from the Venezuelan government.
Last month, a group of US lawmakers called for an investigation following a television documentary alleging that Acosta was among a group of Venezuelan and Iranian diplomats that expressed interest in an offer from a group of Mexican hackers to infiltrate the websites of the White House, the FBI, the Pentagon and US nuclear plants.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez called the report “lies.”
A State Department spokesman said last month that the US did not know about the alleged plot, but that it found the allegations “very disturbing.”
In a letter last month to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, David Rivera, Mario Diaz-Balart and Albio Sires asked the State Department to require Acosta’s “immediate departure” from the United States if the report proved true.
