Thread by @travis_view

I have an incomplete fact check of a Matt Gaetz tweet. Spoiler: I dunno what's going on.
Congressman Gaetz tweeted a video depicting men handing out money to what appeared to be people in the Honduran caravan. This video came from the Facebook page of one Enrique Vitanza.
1/8

Vitanza is a Honduran resident. But when I asked him via Facebook messenger about the source of the video, he claimed the video was sent to him by friends in Guatemala.

If that's true, then Gaetz's claim in his tweet the video is "Footage in Honduras" is false.
2/8

On the more substantial point re: the content of the video, he did characterize it as footage of men giving money to people in the caravan.

He speculated on possible political sources of the money (that didn't include Soros or the U.S.), but had no clarifying information.
3/x

So here's where we're at.
Per the original poster of the video:
1) The video was filmed in Guatamela, not Honduras.
2) The video does depict men handing out money to people in the migrant caravan.
3) The source of the money or the reason they are being given cash is unknown.
4/x

But even then, I have to take Vitanza's claims with a grain of salt, since he did not actually film the video, and is himself only receiving information about the video's context and origin second-hand.

5/x

So the claim in Gaetz's tweet that people are being given cash "2 join the caravan & storm the US border @ election time" is not supported by any evidence. Gaetz's speculation "Soros? US-backed NGOs?" is also not supported by any evidence.
6/x

Despite the fact that Gaetz's tweet mostly makes unevidenced claims and probably even makes a false claim about where the video was filmed, the tweet has over 20,000 retweets at the moment.
7/x

But sadly, there isn't any good information about who the men in the video are or what their agenda is. And conspiracy theories thrive whenever there are unknowns like that.

I'll try to see if I can get more evidence about the video, but that's all I have right now.
8/8

Update: @pragmaticleft discovered where the video was filmed with Google Maps. The location is in fact outside this building in Chiquimula, Guatemala, not anywhere in Honduras, as Congressman Gaetz's tweet falsely claimed.

https://twitter.com/pragmaticleft/status/1052829646436401152

Here's the location on Google Maps street view.

google.com/maps/@14.79096…

Journalist @luisassardo says he spoke with Chiquimula locals. He says they told him the money given to the migrants in the video came from merchants in the local area.

https://twitter.com/luisassardo/status/1053016092459917313