A former UK ambassador to Ghana, currently serving as the UK’s High Commissioner to Mexico, Jon Benjamin, has reportedly left his post after pointing an assault rifle at a local member of the embassy staff.
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 Guardian reported.
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,” the caption reads.
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.
🚨ICYMI🇬🇧🔫🇲🇽: According to @FT, former UK ambassador to Ghana and recently to Mexico, Jon Benjamin, has been sacked after ‘jokingly’ pointing an assault rifle at a local embassy employee during an official trip to dangerous northern Mexican states.
He’s no longer listed on as… pic.twitter.com/MGr17ux78R
— Ölele | DTS👨🏾🍳🇬🇭 (@OleleSalvador) May 31, 2024
Meanwhile, according to the Guardian, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We are aware of this incident and have taken appropriate action. Where internal issues do arise, the FCDO has robust HR processes to address them,” FCDO told the Financial Times.
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However, on the gov.uk website, Mr Benjamin is credited as having served as ambassador to Mexico “between 2021 and 2024”.
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.
Before his posting in Mexico, Mr Benjamin served as British ambassador to Chile from 2009 to 2014 and ambassador to Ghana between 2014 and 2016.
In 2012 he apologised for a tweet that referenced an anti-Argentina football chant about the Falklands War.
According to the London-based global broadcaster, Mr Benjamin and FCDO have yet to respond to its request for comments.
Credit: BBC/Guardian
