Updated on
Summary Venezuela will close its consulate in Miami after the U.S. government expelled a diplomat.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he decided the consulate will shut its doors in response to what he called an unfair action by the U.S. State Department.Were going to close it. Its OK. There wont be a consulate in Miami, Chavez said during his annual speech to the National Assembly.Livia Acosta Noguera, Venezuelas consul general in Miami, was ordered out of the U.S. last weekend followed an FBI investigation into allegations that she discussed a possible cyber-attack on the U.S. government while she was assigned to the Venezuelan Embassy in Mexico. The allegations were detailed in a documentary aired by the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision.The documentary was based on recordings of conversations with her and other officials, and alleged that Cuban and Iranian diplomatic missions were involved. Citing audio and video obtained by the students at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Univision said Acosta was seeking information about the servers of nuclear power plants in the U.S.Theres no proof that she was going around carrying out espionage, Chavez said. He said he thought pressure by sectors of the far-right in the U.S. were behind her expulsion.Chavez said the government decided on an administrative closing of the consulate while we study the situation. Its unclear what the government intends to do with other diplomats stationed in Miami.Responding to Chavezs announcement, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said: The decision on how to manage its consulates and how to provide consular services to Venezuelan citizens is entirely that of the Venezuelan government.The consulate in Miami, which covers the states of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, is one of Venezuelas largest in the United States. According to U.S. Census figures, the number of Venezuelans in the United States increased from 91,500 in 2000 to 215,000 in 2010.The Organization of Venezuelans in Exile says 160,000 to 200,000 of those Venezuelans live in Florida.Closing the consulate is a maneuver by Chavez to impede the ... (October) presidential elections in Miami, which is the most important electoral center for Venezuelan voters outside their home country, said Elio Aponte, president of the exile group.In the last presidential vote in 2006, about 15,800 Venezuelans voted in the United States, three-fourths of them at the Miami consulate.Chavez announced the closure in the middle of his state-of-the-nation speech, which lasted more than nine hours. The leftist president repeated his criticisms of the United States, calling its government a threat for the world.Chavez also said he expects a year of tests as he runs for re-election, and he pledged to hand over the presidency if he loses.Chavez has been in office for 13 years and is seeking another six-year term in the October vote. Chavez told opposition lawmakers that if he loses, he would be the first in recognizing it.Recent polls say Chavezs popularity has been above 50 percent. Before his speech, hundreds of supporters wearing the red shirts of his political movement gathered outside the National Assembly and cheered, some of them chanting Chavezs name.
