Venezuelan consul ordered to leave U.S.

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MIAMI, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The Venezuelan consul in Miami has until Tuesday to leave the United States for allegedly plotting cyberattacks against the country.

The U.S. State Department Friday informed the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington of the order against Livia Anton Acosta Noguera, who was under investigation for allegedly plotting against the United States with Iranian diplomats while she was vice secretary at the Venezuelan Embassy in Mexico in 2008, the Latin American Herald Tribune reported Sunday.

"It has recently come to our attention that Ms. Antonieta, assigned to the Venezuelan consul in Miami since March 2011, has been linked to a potential cyber attack on the United States involving affiliates of the Iranian, Cuban and Venezuelan regimes," Reps. David Rivera, R-Fla., Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., and Albio Sires, D-N.J., wrote last month in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Acosta Noguera was declared persona non grata and ordered to leave by Tuesday, the State Department said.