Mexico’s Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero tried to discredit reports of a cartel shootout on the Texas border but got the dates wrong.
On Tuesday morning, during the news conference of Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, journalists asked about Monday’s shooting, where gunmen from the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas fired from Mexico at U.S. Border Patrol agents in Texas.
In her response, Sheinbaum said she asked for information from her security staff, who asked the U.S. to see if it really happened. The president then criticized the Mexican newspaper Reforma, which reported on the shooting, for “putting out the headline they did without having information.” She added, that everyone had to be responsible during “these times”.
Sheinbaum then asked Mexico’s Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero to provide details about the case. Manero claimed that the information on the shooting first came from a U.S. TV network late last week.
Gertz Manero claimed that after the report had gained notoriety on Monday, Sheinbaum had her foreign ministry formally request information from the U.S. government. Depending on that information, he and his staff would begin any investigations.
In addition to having the wrong dates, Gertz Manero failed to mention that members of Mexico’s military were at the scene on the Mexican side in an attempt to capture the gunmen but ultimately withdrew from the area. The presence of Mexican authorities is confirmed by photographs released by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
As Breitbart Texas reported, the shooting took place just south of Fronton on Monday during an apparent human smuggling incident where gunmen fired on U.S. Border Patrol agents to keep them from apprehending a group of migrants. Soon after, U.S. law enforcement flooded the area on the Texas side in an attempt to capture the gunmen but ultimately left the scene on Monday night.
The area where the shooting took place is currently controlled by the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas, who have been waging a turf war with the Gulf Cartel for lucrative drug trafficking and human smuggling routes into Texas.
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 [email protected].
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 [email protected].
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