Photo shows members of the migrant caravan dragging a Mexican official.
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Photographer Pedro Pardo took this picture for Getty Images in 2014 during a protest in Acapulco, Mexico. This week, bloggers misappropriated the image, sharing it on Facebook and saying it was taken during the migrant caravan. We rate that Pants on Fire!
Viral photo showing Mexican police being dragged is from 2014, not the migrant caravan
Recently, bloggers were misusing an old photo of bloodied police officers to wrongly claim that migrants in the caravan walking to the U.S.-Mexico border were brutalizing Mexican cops. Now they’re misappropriating another shot of a Mexican official.
"Mexican official being dragged by the caravan," reads the text above an image of what looks like an officer being pulled along by men with covered faces. "Anyone up for open borders??"
The photo was posted on Facebook on Oct. 30 and has been shared more than 930 times. This story was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
The photo was actually taken in Acapulco in 2014, when Mexican police were injured during protests over the disappearance of 43 student teachers. Sixteen officers were injured, according to the Guardian.
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Photographer Pedro Pardo took the picture for Getty Images. The caption that ran with the image in the Guardian’s story: "Demonstrators hold a riot police officer during clashes following a protest in Acapulco."
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Our Sources
Facebook post, Oct. 30, 2018
The Guardian, "Mexican police injured in Acapulco during protests over student massacre," Nov. 10, 2014
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Viral photo showing Mexican police being dragged is from 2014, not the migrant caravan
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