Livia Acosta Noguera: Mild-mannered Venezuelan diplomat, or

cold-eyed spy hidden in plain sight?

teleSUR, Venezuela

'Terrorist-Linked Venezuelans' Charged with Orchestrating Expulsion of Consul to Miami

"For several weeks we have received threats from violent, terrorist-linked sectors in Miami. Everyone must be aware that a group of Venezuelan fugitives from justice celebrated and sponsored this decision against Venezuela."

-- Venezuela Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro

Translated By Florizul Acosta-Perez

January 15, 2012

Venezuela - Telesur - Original Article (Spanish)

Venezuela Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro has said that the U.S. government's expulsion of Venezuela's consul in Miami, Livia Acosta Noguera, is a response to a destabilization plan orchestrated by Venezuelans living in that city.

[Editor's Note: The U.S. ordered the immediate expulsion of Livia Acosta Noguera, head of the Venezuelan consulate in Miami, over allegations that she helped coordinate a cyber attack against U.S. government targets in 2008. The diplomat was declared “persona non grata” by the State Department and was given three days to leave the country. State Department officials refused to discuss the reasons for Acosta’s expulsion, but according to the BBC, the expulsion order came after a letter was sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by four U.S. Congress members. The letter’s authors reportedly raised concerns about a documentary aired in December by U.S.-based broadcaster Univision entitled, The Iranian Threat. The documentary alleges that Noguera was part of a team of diplomats from Venezuela, Iran and Cuba, who helped orchestrate a cyber-espionage operation against U.S. targets when Noguera was vice secretary of the Venezuelan Embassy in Mexico in 2008. The alleged operation was aimed at U.S. government computer servers, including some at the Defense Department, National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency and the White House. Computer servers at a number of U.S. nuclear power plants were also reportedly targeted. The documentary included allegations that Acosta is a member of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, Venezuela’s leading intelligence agency.]

"For several weeks we have received threats from violent, terrorist-linked sectors in Miami. Everyone must be aware that a group of Venezuelan fugitives from justice celebrated and sponsored this decision against Venezuela, and it is they who have been threatening our consul," Maduro complained in an exclusive interview with teleSUR taped in Guatemala.

He emphasized that Venezuela reasserts its rejection and condemnation of, "this aggression against our country, and particularly against a Venezuelan woman, a professional, who was performing her duties as chief of the Venezuela Consulate in Miami, and who, everyone knows, is highly respected and appreciated throughout the Florida community, where she always acted with great professionalism and work ethics."

Chancellor Maduro explained that the entire staff of the consular delegation is returning to Caracas.

“We will enter an evaluation phase and thoroughly examine recent events. All our staff is returning to Caracas and will take precautions so that all consular services that were provided in Miami can be provided by our other consulates in Houston, New York, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco.”

For the holder of Venezuela's foreign affairs portfolio, the expulsion of Livia Acosta Noguera, "comes with no explanation and in any case is out of all proportion, absolutely out of all proportion, because it was based on a garbage documentary by Spanish-language network Univision, which was broadcast on their network in December, which consisted of lies and manipulations." [see video below].    

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Consul Livia Acosta Noguera was expelled by the U.S. government and declared persona non grata on Sunday, January 8 - without further explanation.

Given the action taken by Washington, Caracas decided to close its Miami consulate.

It is an "administrative closure of the consulate, while we study a situation that is unfair, abusive and immoral," declared Venezuela President Hugo Chavez.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

The president described the measure as arbitrary and unjustified, and he noted that thanks to intelligence information, Caracas already knew what Washington's decision would be. That is why since December, the consul has been traveling in South America and for security reasons, will not return to Miami.

The consul has been, "accused of I don't know how many things by the U.S. government, and above all by extreme right-wing mayamera [Venezuelans who flee to Miami], including more than a few Venezuelans who live there and are counter-revolutionaries. … Not all, but a handful of them," the president said.

Local media reported that the measure is due to an alleged conspiracy on the part of the consul to destabilize the Barack Obama government.