Controversial former British High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin, has been dismissed after he pointed an assault rifle at a local embassy employee, it emerged when footage of the incident was posted on social media.
The Financial Times reported that, Jon Benjamin, who until April, this year, was the British Ambassador to Mexico, was on an official trip to Durango and Sinaloa, two states with strong organised crime groups when he picked up a gun in the vehicle he was travelling in and aimed it at a colleague, who gestured uncomfortably in the five-second clip.
The heavily loaded firearm, presumably belonged to the security detail accompanying the diplomat, who was sacked soon after the incident in April, ending a career that spanned four decades.
The Foreign Office, said it had taken “appropriate action” after the incident. He is no longer listed as ambassador to Mexico on the government’s official website, which says he was in post “between 2021 and 2024”.
In the video, a man resembling Mr Benjamin, can be seen moving a weapon around the car, aiming it at different people. Laughter can be heard in the background. One man was seen gesturing uncomfortably as the weapon was aimed at him.
Jon Benjamin was removed from the post after the video emerged online of him pointing an assault rifle at an embassy employee.
The video, shared on X, shows Jon Benjamin pointing the firearm at a person whose face has been blurred out.
“In a context of daily killings in Mexico by drug dealers, he dares to joke,” reads a post accompanying the clip.
On Friday, the Financial Times reported the ambassador had been removed from his post after the incident, which reportedly happened during an official trip to the states of Durango and Sinaloa in April.
Both states have a high presence of drug cartels.
Mexico has a long history of cartel violence, with around 30,000 murders a year.
“We are aware of this incident and have taken appropriate action,” a spokesman for the UK Foreign Office said.
“Where internal issues do arise, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has robust HR processes to address them.”
Mr Benjamin’s LinkedIn page says his term as ambassador ended in May, and a biography posted on the government website for the United Kingdom notes he “was UK Ambassador to Mexico between 2021 and 2024”.
According to the Foreign Office website, Mr Benjamin “joined the Diplomatic Service in 1986, and previously represented the British government in Chile, Ghana, Turkey, Indonesia, and the United States, during his career”.
Mr Benjamin hasn’t commented so far on what appears to have been a badly misplaced joke. Sky News has approached Mr Benjamin for comment.
The video, shared on X, shows Jon Benjamin pointing the firearm at a person whose face has been blurred out.
The firearm presumably belonged to the security detail accompanying the diplomat.
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 had more than 30,000 homicides a year for the last six years — one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America — as organized crime groups fight to control territory and businesses across the country.
Benjamin is no longer listed as the ambassador on the UK government website.
He 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.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Guardian but told the Financial Times: “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.”
Diplomatic relations between the UK and Mexico, Latin America’s second-largest economy, have tended to be cordial and uncontroversial. They have been negotiating a new free trade agreement since 2022.
Jon Benjamin was very active on social media with a large following on X. He could be quite outspoken, sometimes directly answering followers on issues he was passionate about – particularly African politics especially that of Ghana, football and rock music. It was part of a more approachable, less stuffy persona than that conveyed by other ambassadors.
In Mexico, as in most of his previous postings, Mr Benjamin was a firm believer in the role of the soft power of British rock and indie music. An avid music fan himself, he encouraged major UK bands and artists to visit Mexico, sometimes hosting them in his residence ahead of their concerts.
For decades, for example, he was the Rolling Stones’ chief point of contact within the FCDO, helping the supergroup to negotiate the tangled paperwork of performing live events around the world.
He always appeared fascinated and well-engaged in Mexico from the start of his posting in 2021, travelling to many of its 32 states. It was on one of those trips, to the drug cartel controlled states of Sinaloa and Durango, that the incident with his staff took place.
Over 30,000 people were murdered in Mexico last year. The country has extremely restrictive gun laws and is home to only one gun shop, housed in a Mexico City military complex.
That the ambassador was seen brandishing a gun at his team amid so many annual murders from drug-related violence in Mexico has struck even more of a nerve among the embassy staff affected – and many Mexicans.
Even if intended as a joke, that it took place with a loaded machine gun in one of the most dangerous regions of Mexico was a serious miscalculation.
What was supposed to be a routine trip to northern Mexico has seemingly brought an ignominious end to a very long and otherwise distinguished career in the FCDO.
An FCDO spokesperson said: “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.”
The BBC says it has also contacted Mr Benjamin for comment.
As of yesterday, Sunday, Mexican voters appear all but certain to elect Claudia Sheinbaum as their first female president, taking over from her popular predecessor of the same party, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The campaign trail had been blighted by violence, with more than 30 candidates killed and hundreds more dropping out as organized crime groups vie to install friendly leaders.
On Wednesday – the final day of the campaign – a gunman filmed himself shooting dead the opposition mayoral candidate José Alfredo Cabrera in the town of Coyuca de Benítez, Guerrero, before in turn being gunned down by bodyguards.
