Officials in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas used their official social media accounts to discredit recent news articles about cartel shootouts. At the same time, these officials made false or misleading claims about the circumstances surrounding the shooting events.
Tamaulipas officials over the weekend stated through the accounts of the Voceria de Seguridad de Tamaulipas that two separate news reports by the Universal newspaper in Mexico about various large-scale gun battles in the city of Reynosa were false. El Universal is one of the largest newspapers in Mexico.
In one of the reports, El Universal reported a large-scale shootout outside the Reynosa international airport. The publication noted the intensity of the shootout where convoys of armored vehicles filled with gunmen exchanged gunfire with complete impunity. In their article, the publication claimed the last flight of the city had been canceled due to the shootout.
In a second story about the shootout near the airport, El Universal reported on two individuals injured and one killed after the shootout.
Various other news outlets in Mexico, including local outlets in Reynosa, also reported similar information on the large-scale shootout outside of the airport and shared multiple photographs of the incident.
In their social media accounts, Tamaulipas state officials did not provide timely or detailed information on the shootouts. Instead, they responded by claiming the information reported by El Universal was false. In one post, the officials stated that the last flight had been canceled because of too much air traffic and not because of a shootout outside the airport.
In a second post, Tamaulipas officials claimed that there had been no injuries or fatalities in the gunbattle outside the airport.
As Breitbart Texas reported, Tamaulipas state officials have worked to minimize and have outright denied the raging cartel violence that continues to take place throughout the region. Earlier this year, public officials denied reports about an ongoing war between rival factions of the Gulf Cartel, calling it sensationalism. As the violence continued, officials walked back some of the claims but continue to minimize the issues.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.