The latest controversy surrounding the Embassy of Mexico in the United Kingdom, which has implicated Marcelo Ebrard, was set in motion years ago. His son, Marcelo Patrick Ebrard Ramos, lived between 2021 and 2022 in the diplomatic residence in London. At that time, in the final stretch of the covid-19 pandemic, the young man was a Psychology student and his father was the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Ebrard Ramos lived for months in a large room with a fireplace in the left wing of the diplomatic building, according to EL PAÍS, as part of its investigation into the excesses at the London Embassy. The student was attended by a butler, a cook, and two cleaning staff in a residence reserved for the ambassador, her family, or visits from government officials. Ebrard, asked this Thursday at the morning press conference, stated: “I do not see any abuse on my part, we did not use any resources improperly.” The 2021 Code of Ethics of the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs — promoted by the official himself when he was chancellor — prohibits “using institutional goods or properties, human, material, or financial resources for purposes other than those assigned.”
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Marcelo Patrick is Ebrard’s youngest son with his first wife, Francesca Ramos. The young man, his father explained this Thursday, wanted to train in neuroscience in London, after having studied Medicine and Psychology in Mexico. In 2019, the Embassy already held a meeting to help him find a real estate agency, according to a source who was present: “The information was sent and that was the end of the matter.” The issue was resumed, by another route, in 2021. “I was very busy bringing vaccines to Mexico,” Ebrard began recounting, “and I had a conversation with Josefa [González-Blanco], who had been appointed ambassador, and I told her: ‘Hey, my son will be over there because he wants to do some studies and I have many reservations,’ because we were in the middle of the pandemic. And [she] told me: ‘Send him to the residence and I’ll treat him like a son, at least for the time that is indispensable.’ I wasn’t very convinced that he should go, but my son wanted to go to take some courses.” That conversation, between a chancellor and a newly appointed ambassador, is the “genesis” of a controversial stay that lasted months. The former ambassador has not responded to questions about this invitation.
The length of Ebrard Ramos’s stay in the diplomatic building is one of the facets of the conflict. The current Secretary of Economy has told the president that his son stayed “approximately six months”; his team confirmed to EL PAÍS on Wednesday that it was from June 2021 to January 2022, that is, eight months; and three sources who worked at the representation during that time told this newspaper that the student lived there even before Josefa González-Blanco arrived in London in April 2021. That information has been categorically denied by Ebrard.
“He was there before the ambassador arrived,” says a person who was employed at the representation and recalls that at that time the four residence workers exclusively attended to Ebrard Ramos: “Visits were received at the residence, but only for a couple of days. He was the guest who stayed the longest.” Four sources related to the foreign ministry point out that there is no precedent for such use of diplomatic premises by direct family members of secretaries of state. “I never knew of anyone who was not part of the mission and was living in the mission,” one of them notes.
Ebrard has maintained at the Mañanera that there was no abuse, only “a father’s concern for a son” due to the covid-19 pandemic. The Secretary of Economy has recounted that his son’s conduct was “impeccable” and that he organized an exhibition on mental health there, where people could “display paintings and drawings of their experience during the pandemic.” The official has stated that there is “meanness” in the reports revealing that his son lived as a guest in the residence, when “they know the dedication of the entire Mexican foreign ministry team to bring the equipment, the vaccines to Mexico…”: “My son only wanted to contribute with that exhibition so that that community would be better in London.”
In a regular procedure, guests invited by the Mexican Government to the Embassy residence receive a letter signed by the person who assumes legal responsibility for their stay. The Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE) has not responded about who authorized the arrival of the chancellor’s son nor for what purpose it was allowed. Ebrard has insisted that he thanked Josefa González-Blanco for the direct invitation to his son. During the ambassador’s five-year term, a trail of complaints was recorded for mismanagement, workplace harassment, and lack of bilateral relations between Mexico and the United Kingdom.
The invitation
Built at number 48 Belgrave Square, Mexico’s residence in London is a white mansion with three floors and a basement. After two centuries of history, the upper parts of the house are reserved for the head of the Embassy and their guests, while the service staff occupy the rooms in the basement. Marcelo Patrick landed in the British capital after having studied at Westhill University of Santa Fe — owned by builder José María Riobóo and Supreme Court Minister Yasmín Esquivel — to take some courses. Despite the pandemic, he asked his father “not to miss that opportunity.”
At the beginning of 2021, the Embassy had no head. Since Julián Ventura left in 2018, the representation had been managed by a chargé d’affaires. At that time, the person responsible was Aureny Aguirre, who, contacted by this newspaper, stated “having no information regarding this matter.” The rest of the staff learned about Ebrard Ramos’s arrival bit by bit.
“Nothing was official, there was no meeting, no communication, no notice within the foreign ministry nor within the Embassy that this boy was going to live there in the residence,” recounts a source who worked inside and assures that Ebrard’s son arrived in the summer of 2021, never before González-Blanco: “Everything was hallway talk, we all knew he was there, we found him at official events. But there was never any formalization.”
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The stay
The young man shared the premises with the head and from December 2021 also with another local Embassy employee. The student did participate in the preparation of the mental health exhibition, which was inaugurated in November 2021. Outside of this time, “Josefa had to act as his nanny,” says a close source, who rejects that González-Blanco invited the young man: “On the contrary, it became a task for her, she tried to give him some project so he would have something to do, it was a way to take care of him, but he was a complicated person, for days he did not leave his room, he did not tolerate much company in the residence.” The ambassador’s family was never close to Ebrard’s, especially due to the strained relationship between Patrocinio González-Blanco (Josefa’s father) and Manuel Camacho (Ebrard’s political mentor).
According to what this newspaper has been able to reconstruct, Marcelo Patrick’s departure from the residence was due to the covid-19 infection of one of the residence employees, which led his mother, Francesca Ramos, to decide to remove him from the place. However, the Secretary of Economy states that it was because his classes had ceased to be in-person and became all virtual, so it made no sense for the student to remain in London. He returned to Mexico.
During the almost five years that Josefa González-Blanco was at Belgrave Square, an open-door policy was established, which coincided with the use of the residence as a party venue. Besides secretaries of state, such as Tatiana Clouthier, and senior foreign ministry officials, for work reasons, friends and family of González-Blanco were also at the residence. The ambassador’s closest family — mother, sister, and nephews — only visited her during the day, according to testimonies, as they also live in the United Kingdom and have their own homes there. However, some embassy employees have stated that sometimes Josefa González-Blanco let other guests use the residence for a few days. No one recalls any guest staying for months in the residence.
The Code of Ethics
The fact that Marcelo Patrick lived in an institutional premises confronts numerous principles of the SRE Code of Ethics for public servants. In its constitutional section on honesty, this document includes: “Conduct ourselves with integrity without taking advantage of our position, role, or employment for personal benefit or to benefit third parties”; in objectivity: “Preserve the higher interest of collective needs above particular interests, acting neutrally in decision-making”; in efficiency: “Responsible and clear use of public resources, eliminating any undue discretion in their application,” or in commitment: “Make proper use of my position to eliminate obtaining personal economic benefits, privileges.”
“There is not a single reason why the chancellor could have access to a residence,” says a source close to the foreign ministry. The SRE code of conduct explains that “corruption carried out by public servants also involves an abuse of power to obtain personal benefits or benefits for third parties, to the detriment of public assets and thus the general interest.”
From Mexico, there are areas responsible for reviewing the work of representations abroad; in this case, they would be the Undersecretariat of Foreign Affairs, the General Directorate for Europe, the Administration and Finance Unit, the General Directorate of Assets and Material Resources. “All those public servants, by action or omission, can be responsible for a private individual using Mexico’s resources,” points out a source close to the foreign ministry. The Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE) has not answered whether they were aware that the chancellor’s son resided in the Embassy for a year.
The representation is now the responsibility of former Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero, who was chosen by Claudia Sheinbaum as the new ambassador to the United Kingdom.
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