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Bloggers
Bloggers
stated on October 30, 2018 in a post on Facebook:

Photo shows members of the migrant caravan dragging a Mexican official.

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.

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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Pants on Fire

Photo shows members of the migrant caravan dragging a Mexican official.
a Facebook post
Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Our Sources

Facebook post, Oct. 30, 2018

The Guardian, "Mexican police injured in Acapulco during protests over student massacre," Nov. 10, 2014

 

Viral photo showing Mexican police being dragged is from 2014, not the migrant caravan

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
stated on stated on November 17, 2025 in remarks at George Washington University:

Donald Trump
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