Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas and Coahuila to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.A. Espinoza” from Matamoros

MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas — Once again the government in this border state continues to manipulate information in order to minimize the scope of the violence and the true number of casualties left by the regular gun battles in this city.

On Tuesday, Mexican authorities and cartel gunmen faced off in yet another firefight that began as a chase through Puerto Rico and Seccion 16 neighborhoods and ended in Hacienda del Puente neighborhood. The firefight killed four gunmen, however the news release provided by the Tamaulipas government provides an alternate version of events that omits the casualties. The news release by the government instead focuses on the arrest of a cartel gunman and the seizure of weapons.

According to the “official” version, state police officers had been patrolling when they heard the sound of gunfire. The police officers spotted a late model Dodge Ram 1500 speeding off. Authorities chased the vehicle to the Hacienda Las Fuentes where the gunmen got out of the truck and began a firefight. According to the government version of events, authorities arrested 21-year-old Miguel Angel Rodriguez Martinez and the rest managed to run away. The government also noted that the truck they had seized from the gunmen was reported as stolen.

The omission by the Tamaulipas government comes just days after as Breitbart Texas previously reported, the entity will not provide consistent information in relation to a series of gun battles in this border city. Most recently those firefights have left 8 gunmen dead. Government officials continue to remain silent about a recent firefight in the border city of Nuevo Laredo that killed six Los Zetas cartel gunmen who burned alive when a grenade went off inside their SUV.

The Tamaulipas government also tried to coverup a clandestine narco-gravesite east of this city, not far from the Rio Grande. As Breitbart Texas previously reported, the gravesite known as “The Kitchen” was an area where cartel members would incinerate their victims and then disperse the ashes.

In their efforts to cover up the gravesite, the Tamaulipas government claimed that forensic experts could not determine if the bones found in the area were human or animal bones.