I. Roberto Eisenmann Jr.

I. Roberto Eisenmann Jr. is a Panamanian journalist known for founding and heading La Prensa, a leading daily newspaper described as Panama's newspaper of record.

After several years in exile in the U.S., Eisenmann returned to Panama in 1979.

In 1980, he founded La Prensa to oppose the military dictatorship of Omar Torrijos, and the paper published its first issue on August 4, 1980.

The paper soon ran into strong, and occasionally violent, opposition. In 1982, Prensa editor Carlos Ernesto González was sentenced to five months' imprisonment for an article critical of President Aristedes Royo, in which he accused the president of being behind the gunshots fired at the Prensa building by Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) supporters.

In 1986, La Prensa was the only newspaper to publish reports critical of military leader Manuel Noriega; the government consequently adopted a formal resolution condemning Eisenmann as a "traitor to the nation". Eisenmann then reportedly lived in exile in the U.S. for fear of his safety, first in Massachusetts as a Nieman Fellow of Harvard University, and then in Miami, Florida.

On July 2, 1987, PRD supporters burned down Mansion Dante, a commercial complex owned by the Eisenmann family.

On July 26, security forces entered the building with an order to close La Prensa signed by Governor of Panama Alberto Velázquez; two smaller opposition papers were also closed.La Prensa remained closed for six months, putting out its next issue on January 20, 1988.

The paper was occupied and closed by government troops again in 1988, remaining closed until after the December 1989 United States invasion of Panama. During the invasion, the U.S. Army stated that it found documents from opponents of the regime—ranging from Eisenmann to U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush—being used in apparent Santería rituals against them. The paper reopened in January 1990. Eisenmann called the issue "the first La Prensa that we have ever published without threat, without being under the gun".

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