Prensa Latina

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". According to Servando González, the creation of the agency was similar to that of Agencia Latina founded by Juan Perón.Gonzalez, S. The Secret Fidel Castro: Deconstructing the Symbol. InteliNet/InteliBooks, 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-9711391-1-4}}.

Prensa Latina was founded at the initiative of Ernesto Che Guevara. The founder and first manager was Argentinian journalist Jorge Ricardo Masetti.Bell-Villada, G. H. García Márquez: The Man and His Work. UNC Press, 1990. {{ISBN|978-0-8078-4264-5}}. 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, Aroldo Wall, Leonardo Acosta and Carlos María Gutiérrez.

Prensa Latina had its license revoked in the United States in 1969, in retaliation after the Cuban government closed down Associated Press and United Press International bureaus in Havana. These offices have since reopened and function intermittently.De Mestral, A. L. C. & Gruchalla-Wesierski, T. Extraterritorial Application of Export Control Legislation: Canada and the U.S.A.. BRILL, 1990. {{ISBN|978-0-7923-0526-2}}.

Officials working at the agency are usually affiliated with the Dirección de Inteligencia (DI).Horowitz, I. L. Cuban Communism, 1959-1995. Transaction Publishers, 1995. {{ISBN|978-1-56000-758-6}}.{{page needed|date=September 2024}}{{Cite book |last=Dobbs |first=M. |title=One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4000-4358-3 |publication-date= |pages=148-149 |quote=Prensa Latina reporters, who all had close ties with Cuban intelligence, were picking up rumors that Kennedy had given the United Nations a deadline for the "liquidation" of Soviet missiles from Cuba.}} 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.{{page needed|date=September 2024}}Nelson, R. C. & Weisbrode, K. Reversing Relations with Former Adversaries: U.S. Foreign Policy After the Cold War. University Press of Florida, 1998. {{ISBN|978-0-8130-1545-3}}.{{page needed|date=September 2024}}

{{quote|"Prensa Latina is part of the Cuban Revolution since it was born with the revolutionary process."| Frank Gonzalez, Prensa Latina Former President[http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/16038/ Prensa Latina News Agency’s 50th Birthday] by Willy Wright, People's Weekly World, June 17 2009}}

All mass media in Cuba receive their information from the agency.Horowitz, I. L. & Suchlicki, J. Cuban Communism. Transaction Publishers, 2000. {{ISBN|978-0-7658-0765-6}}. The agency regularly relays speeches from Fidel Castro and other government officials, and reports on state activities. The organisation also disseminates information about Latin Americas relations with Cuba and the revolution.Calvert, P. A Political and Economic Dictionary of Latin America: an essential guide to the politics and economics of Central and South America and the Caribbean. Routledge, 2004. {{ISBN|978-1-85743-211-4}}.

Prensa Latina has its central office in Havana, Cuba, and its goal is to provide an alternative news source of international topics and events. The agency also has an additional 40 overseas offices, most of them in Latin America.

A daily news service is provided by the agency, with information on economic, financial and commercial news. They also publish a daily English-language "Cuba News in Brief" and "Cuba Direct", which provide translations of articles regarding Cuban news, politics, culture, sports and art. Other features include tourism news, medical news, women's issues, and coverage of Cuban and Caribbean science and medicine.[http://www.pressreference.com/Co-Fa/Cuba.html Cuba media], Press reference.

• Media of Cuba
• Communications in Cuba

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.prensa-latina.cu/ Prensa Latina Official Site]
• [http://www.plenglish.com/ Prensa Latina English edition]

{{Media in Cuba}}

{{News agencies}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:News agencies based in Cuba

Category:Mass media companies established in 1959

Category:1959 establishments in Cuba