Mexican residents complain of little information available regarding drug violence
As violence in Mexico increases, information on incidents between the criminal organizations and the Mexican military has become difficult to come by.
The lack of media coverage from Mexican media has left residents on both sides of the Rio Grande having to rely on the Internet resources including government websites, Rio Grande Valley media and social media to find out the latest news on the violence.
One of the sources that citizens turn to is the Tamaulipas Timely Alert Center, an online service that reports violent incidents throughout the state, said the center’s coordinator, Ruben Dario Rios Lopez. The website can be viewed at www.tamaulipas.gob.mx/informacion/.
The website, which was set up last month, lists the 43 municipalities that make up the state of Tamaulipas and provides links with information on areas where violent incidents have occurred and authorities are investigating.
The website already has 1,116,867 hits from citizens trying to find out what is going on, Rios said.
"We provide information that is available to us through official channels," he said. "We don’t circulate rumors."
However, because the state-run website must wait for official confirmation, the timeliness of the information is sometimes put into question.
According to Rios, if the information is not received from a law enforcement agency or other government office it is not posted.
A Mexican law enforcement official who asked that his name not be released said there have been firefights between members of organized crime where little or no information has been released.
The state is not the only governing body trying to inform those concerned about the violence.
Municipal governments are also working to share information by using social media networks to reach out to those concerned.
The city of Reynosa has begun Twitter and Facebook accounts that regularly post updates about any "risk situations" and asks the public to avoid those addresses. The Twitter account is identified as #DirDeGobReynosa while the Facebook account is named Direccion de Gobierno Reynosa.
"At the moment we don’t have reports of incidents with a situation of risk in Reynosa" the Reynosa Twitter feed and Facebook profile stated in Spanish on Friday afternoon.
"That really helps us," said a Reynosa maquiladora manager who lives in McAllen and asked to remain unidentified. "I check it every time I go to work and every time I leave the office."
The public has also become involved sharing information about ongoing shootings and other situations using social networking sites. At Twitter sections like #Reynosa or #Matamoros, users can be seen asking other users to confirm if there is a shootout at a specific address.
To date, the city of Matamoros doesn’t have a Twitter or Facebook account. Calls to the Matamoros City Hall requesting comment were not answered.
To add to the confusion, according to Mexican reporters, several e-mails allegedly signed by the Gulf Cartel, or CDG, have begun circulating stating that they are not involved in the extortion of businesses or in the murdering of bystanders. Other e-mails also alleging to be from the cartel name various individuals accusing them of being the leadership of the Zetas criminal organization.
"The problem with these (e-mails and public postings) is that there is no way to verify the information that is posted," Rios said. "This leads to a lot of rumors that can be misleading."
