Prensa Latina

Prensa Latina, legal name Agencia de Noticias Latinoamericana S.A. (Latin American News Agency), is the official state news agency of Cuba, founded in March 1959 shortly after the Cuban Revolution.

In a speech by Fidel Castro in Santiago de Cuba in 1959, Castro denounced the United States media and instead favoured a Latin American service "written in our own language". The creation of the agency was similar to that of Agencia Latina founded by Juan Perón, to disseminate the government ideology and neutralize the American propaganda.

Prensa Latina was founded at the initiative of Ernesto Che Guevara. The founder and first manager was Argentinian journalist Jorge Ricardo Masetti. On Masetti's instructions, the first journalists were recruited by March 1959, when the service went into operation. Among the initial group of journalists were Gabriel García Márquez, Rodolfo Walsh, Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Rogelio García Lupo, Leonardo Acosta and Carlos María Gutiérrez. Prensa Latina had its license revoked in the United States in 1969, after the Cuban government closed down Associated Press and United Press International offices in Havana. These offices have since reopened and function intermittently. Officials working at the agency are usually affiliated with the Dirección de Inteligencia (DI). The history of the agency is also intertwined with Cuba's foreign relations. On occasion, several bureau chiefs abroad have been deported on charges of espionage, including agency staff from Peru, Canada and Jamaica.