The United States has expelled Venezuelan General Consul Livia Acosta Noguera, who is based in Miami, declaring her persona non grata, according to media reports.
Noguera must leave the country by Tuesday, State Department spokesperson William Ostick told CNN on Sunday. She has been the consul since March 2011.
She is alleged to have discussed possible cyber-attacks on the United States, according to a report by Spanish-language TV station Univision.
The report said she, other Venezuelan officials, and Iranian diplomats expressed interest in an offer made by Mexico-based hackers to attack the White House, the FBI, and other sensitive websites owned by the U.S. government.
“If Iran is using regional actors to facilitate and direct activities against the United States, this would represent a substantial increase in the level of the Iranian threat and would necessitate an immediate response,” said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the head of Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, recently, according to the Latin American Herald-Tribune.
