The British ambassador to Mexico has been sacked after claims he pointed a firearm at a local embassy staffer - an incident that was caught on video and spread on social media, the "Financial Times" reported yesterday, quoted by BTA.
The video was filmed in April during an official visit in April to the states of Durango and Sinaloa (northeastern part of the country), where one of the two most violent cartels that cause bloodshed in Mexico operates.
In the clip, shared on social network X, career diplomat John Benjamin can be seen pointing a gun at a man whose face has been blurred. "In the context of the daily murders in Mexico by drug dealers, he dares to joke," reads the post accompanying the video.
Mexico has long been plagued by violence linked to the country's warring drug cartels, with around 30,000 people killed annually in the country.
"We are aware of this incident and have taken appropriate action," said a spokesman for the British Foreign Office.
In Benjamin's "LinkedIn" it says his term as ambassador ended in May, and his biography on the UK government website says he "was the UK ambassador to Mexico between 2021 and 2024, Reuters notes.
Every year in Mexico, a country of 129 million people, about 30,000 murders are registered. Three-quarters of them are the result of settling scores between drug cartels or organized crime groups.