Ex-Mexico UK Ambassador Accused of Workplace Harassment

Mexico City — Josefa González-Blanco Ortiz Mena will leave her position as Mexico’s ambassador to the United Kingdom amid allegations of workplace harassment and a deterioration in bilateral relations, according to testimonies from workers who dealt directly with the official.

In her place, former Attorney General of the Republic Alejandro Gertz Manero will assume the diplomatic representation, after receiving approval from the British government.

According to the newspaper El País, Josefina González-Blanco accumulated at least 16 formal complaints filed by embassy workers before the Internal Control Body and the Ethics Committee.

Employees reported a work environment marked by harassment, constant stress, and punishment practices against those who opposed her decisions.

Among the testimonies collected by El País, a dynamic internally known as “the dog house” is described, a punishment mechanism that consisted of isolating employees: stopping speaking to them, denying them information, and prohibiting the rest of the staff from any contact with them. “You simply cease to exist,” recounted one of the employees.

Since 2021, at least 40 employees have left the embassy, between resignations and rotations to other diplomatic representations, leaving the headquarters with less than half of its staff.

Although the complainants won their cases in internal instances, they claim that the resolutions had no consequences for the ambassador because she refused to comply with the recommendations and the Foreign Ministry did not intervene.

The complaints indicate that mistreatment was repeated both with personnel from the Mexican Foreign Service and with local employees. “The violence is systemic and widespread with those who do not comply with her whims, with officials who refuse to violate the rules, or with bosses who cannot withstand the pace of mistreatment,” said a source.

One of the most compelling testimonies records telephone shouts attributed to González-Blanco: “If I want you to leave for Mexico tomorrow, I’ll put you on a plane and you leave. Because I gave you the job, you’re good for nothing, and if I say you kneel, you kneel.”

Despite these accusations, the diplomat publicly maintained that the bilateral relationship with the United Kingdom remained “solid, active, and in permanent strengthening,” something that, she claimed, could be verified in the public agenda and daily work between both governments.

Gertz Manero to Replace Josefa González at UK Embassy

President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed on January 7 that Alejandro Gertz Manero will be the next ambassador of Mexico to the United Kingdom, once the Senate approves his appointment. The former attorney general resigned from the Attorney General’s Office two years before the end of his term.

After the announcement, González-Blanco published a message in which she congratulated Gertz Manero and thanked former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and President Sheinbaum for the trust placed in her. “It has been the greatest honor for me to promote the bilateral relationship between our nations,” she wrote.

Who is Josefa González-Blanco?

Josefa González-Blanco was born on March 9, 1965, in Mexico City. She is the daughter of Patrocinio González Blanco, former governor of Chiapas and former Secretary of the Interior during the administration of Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

She holds a law degree from Universidad Anáhuac and a master’s in Transformative Arts from John F. Kennedy University.

Before her time in diplomacy, she participated in environmental and cultural projects in England, worked with homeless people in London, and was a professor of Comparative Legal Systems at UNAM. She also served as head of the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, a position she assumed on December 1, 2018.

Her departure from the Embassy of Mexico in the United Kingdom occurs amid multiple complaints of workplace harassment.