UK ambassador to Mexico sacked after pointing gun at employee, Financial Times reports

MEXICO CITY: The United Kingdom’s ambassador to Mexico was fired earlier this year after allegedly pointing a gun at a local embassy employee, an incident which was captured on video and circulated on social media, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

Jon Benjamin is no longer listed as ambassador on his LinkedIn page, and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The embassy in Mexico also did not respond. The Financial Times reported that Jon Benjamin was on an official trip to Durango and Sinaloa, two states with strong organised crime groups, when he looked down the gun’s sights at a colleague, who gestures uncomfortably in the five-second clip.

The firearm presumably belonged to the security detail accompanying the diplomat, who was sacked soon after the incident in April.

The video was released by an anonymous account on X, formerly known as Twitter. “In a context of daily killings in Mexico by drug dealers, he dares to joke,” wrote the account.

Mexico has seen more than 30,000 homicides a year for the last six years – one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America – as organised crime groups fight to control territory and businesses across the country.

Benjamin, 61, is no longer listed as the ambassador on the UK government website.

Benjamin became UK ambassador to Mexico in 2021, having previously held posts in Chile, Turkey, Ghana, Indonesia and the US over a career of almost four decades.—Reuters