Jon Benjamin, a former British High Commissioner to Ghana, who is currently serving as the British ambassador to Mexico has been removed from office after a video of him pointing an assault rifle at a local embassy employee in a car emerged online.
The video, shared on social media platform X (formally Twitter) saw Jon Benjamin pointing the weapon at a person whose face has been blurred.
The Financial Times on Friday, May 31, 2024 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 staff, who gestures uncomfortably in the five-second clip.
The gun belonged to a member of the security personnel who was accompanying the diplomat. The errant security official was also sacked. The
“In a context of daily killings in Mexico by drug dealers, he dares to joke,” a post accompanying the video reads.
Mexico has long reeled from violence linked to the country’s warring drug cartels, with around 30,000 people murdered a year.
“We are aware of this incident and have taken appropriate action,” said a spokesperson for Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
