The director-general for North America of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), Roberto Velasco Álvarez, announced that Darío Alberto Bernal Acero, honorary consul of Mexico in Leamington, Canada, was dismissed from his position after knowing a sexual video recorded in front of his desk at the consular headquarters. The Canadian authorities and also in Mexico are already investigating the events.
The 45-second video was posted on a Twitter account created in February by a person who calls herself Carola Ronne Mena and who has only published about Bernal Acero, accusing him of engaging in inappropriate sexual acts.
The Ministry of Foreign Relations reported that after detecting the publication on Twitter (which no longer exists), it sent for Bernal Acero. “As soon as the matter was known, the term of his assignment was instructed in said Consulate, as well as his presence in Mexico City as soon as possible,” explains a statement.
As a result of the behaviours reported, investigations are being carried out in both Canada and Mexico in order to determine the corresponding responsibilities, says the SRE.
Although the identity of the person who disseminated the video is still being investigated, government sources confirmed that the office in which the video was recorded is the one that Bernal Acero occupies in the diplomatic headquarters since he took office in May 2015.
Bernal Acero denied the accusations against him, mentioning that they are unfounded and that the video took place in a personal situation in 2019, unrelated to what he is accused of in the publication. He also mentioned that the video was made without his authorization or consent.
The former honorary consul of Leamington, who worked mainly with the more than 10,000 Mexican agricultural workers who arrived to work, said that the video was made public after he refused to pay extortion to avoid its publication on social networks.
The SRE affirmed that the Mexico-Canada Temporary Agricultural Workers Program (PTAT) will not be affected by the dismissal of Bernal Acero or by the restrictions on international travel decreed by Ottawa to stop the spread of Covid-19, including the suspension of flights to and from Mexican territory, asserted representatives of both governments.
Zero tolerance for bullying and inappropriate behaviour
The Mexican ministry, the statement continued, “reiterates its policy of zero tolerance for acts of harassment and other conduct that violates the law or its code of ethics.”
Bernal Acero has been a Mexican consul in Leamington since 2015. Before that, he allegedly served as deputy director-general of consular services at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2015.
He was Consul in the Mexican Consulate in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from 2004 to 2008, and Consul of Mexico in Dallas, Texas, from 2008 to 2011.
The video is released in the context in which Félix Salgado Macedonio, who was a candidate for the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party for the governor of Guerrero, is accused of sexual abuse and harassment, which cost him to have his candidacy to the state.
The former candidate is accused by several women who accuse him of having violated them in any way. Faced with the accusations, there were a series of protests that led to the Morena Justice and Honesty Commission deciding to reverse the candidacy and reinstate the profile evaluation process for the selection of a new candidate.
The director-general for North America of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Velazco Álvarez, said that the consul was removed from his post. Photo: SRE
Velazco Álvarez mentioned that the SRE reiterated its zero-tolerance policy against acts of harassment and other behaviours that violate the law or its code of ethics.
Apart from the seriousness of the accusations, diplomatic sources informed the television medium that even when Bernal Acero’s statements were verified, the video records improper acts, carried out by him in the office that he still occupies at the consular headquarters, which he is about to leave. as soon as you are notified.
