MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -The British ambassador to Mexico was fired after allegedly pointing a gun at a local embassy employee, an incident that was captured on video and circulated on social media, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
Ambassador Jon Benjamin was traveling through two Mexican states known for their heavy cartel presence when he picked up a gun and pointed it at an employee inside the vehicle they were traveling in, the outlet reported, citing the video and people familiar with the matter.
The episode occurred in April, the sources told the Financial Times, and Benjamin was fired soon after. Benjamin’s LinkedIn page says his term as ambassador ended in May, and a biography on the UK government website says he “was UK Ambassador to Mexico between 2021 and 2024”.
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the embassy.
A video of what appears to be the incident in question was first published on X earlier this week from an anonymous, recently created account with the username @subdiplomatic.
It shows a man purported to be Benjamin sitting beside the driver in a stationary SUV-type vehicle and turning, smiling, to point it at a person in the back seat. The video has not been verified by Reuters.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Anthony Esposito and Kevin Liffey)
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