Livia Acosta Noguera, Venezuela’s consul in Miami, expelled by US
Venezulan President Hugo Chavez has denied allegations that Venezuela’s Consul General in Miami was involved in planning cyber attacks against the US.
Livia Acosta Noguera, Venezuela's Consul General in Miami, has been ordered to leave the United States, the Associated Press reported.
Acosta Noguera has been declared "persona non grata" by the US state department, and has been ordered to leave the country by Jan. 10. Her expulsion comes after allegations that she discussed terrorist acts against the US government while stationed at Venezuela's Mexico embassy.
Noguera was featured in the documentary “The Iranian Threat”, which aired on Spanish-language network Univision Network in December. According to the film, she interacted with members from the Iranian and Cuban embassies and discussed launching cyber attack against the White House, FBI and CIA while working as a diplomat at Venezuela's consul in Mexico, The Latin American Herald Tribune reported.
The FBI has been investigating those claims, the AP reported.
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Concerned US Congressmen and women, including Florida representatives David Rivera, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Mario Diaz-Balart, wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in December regarding Acosta Noguera's potential involvement in terrorist attacks against the United States.
“If true, these actions demonstrate Livia Antonieta’s willingness to undermine US interests and the potential threat to our national security posed by Livia Antonieta’s activities. With this in mind, we respectfully request the Department of State to investigate these allegations, and if found true, declare her a persona non grata and require her immediate departure from the United States,” the letter reads, according to the Herald Tribune.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez denied that the allegations in the documentary were true.
“They are using a lie as an excuse to attack us,” Chavez said of the United States during a TV and radio address, the Herald Tribune reported. “We must be on our guard.”
The Venezuelan government was notified of the decision on Friday by US State Department spokesman Mark Toner, which gives Nogeura 72 hours to leave Miami under standard diplomatic procedure, the AP reported.