US State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said Washington had informed Venezuela by diplomatic note that it was declaring Jenny Figueredo Frias, a minister counselor at the embassy in Washington, ‘persona non grata’.
“This decision is in response to the government of Venezuela's decision to yesterday expel Commander John Correa, US naval attache in the US embassy in Caracas," Mr McCormack said.
Mr McCormack said Ms Figueredo, the chief of staff to Venezuela's ambassador, had 72 hours to leave. He did not accuse her of anything but said simply she was "the most appropriate" choice for expulsion.
"We don't like to get into tit-for-tat games like this with the Venezuelan government, but they initiated this and we were forced to respond," Mr McCormack told a State Department briefing.
The US move drew fire from Venezuela's Vice Foreign Minister, Pavel Rondon, who told Union Radio in Caracas that it was "incongruous and disproportionate."
Venezuela’s vice foreign minister for North America, Mari Pili Hernandez, insisted Ms Figueredo was a "model" diplomat and called her expulsion a "reprisal of a political character".
But Venezuela would not follow Washington's move with the expulsion of a second US diplomat, she said.
The decision by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to accuse the US naval officer of spying and order him out of the country is the issue that has caused the latest rift in diplomatic relations between Washington and Caracas.
President Chavez claimed Venezuelan authorities had infiltrated a group of military officers from the US embassy whom he alleged had been spying on his government and preparing operations to arrest him.