CubaPLUS Magazine

The Latin American news agency Prensa Latina celebrates its 66th anniversary today, with pride in having always defended "tooth and nail" the truth about this small island and the peoples of the world, despite all the campaigns against it by the major information monopolies, supported by numerous governments.

Today, despite the manipulations of these entities, Prensa Latina continues "in the trenches" defending the rights and just causes of the oppressed, especially those of our Latin America and the Caribbean.

The journey has not been easy. When the agency emerged 66 years ago, at the initiative of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, it was only predicted to last a month. However, reality proved otherwise, and today, after those years, Prensa Latina continues to raise the banner of truth in defense of the people.

Barely three weeks after January 1, 1959, in less than 72 hours, a meeting that made history, "Operation Truth," was organized in the Cuban capital, with the collaboration of the island's embassies in various countries. More than 400 journalists from around the world attended to testify directly about the profound changes taking place in Cuba.

At that meeting, the Cuban leader denounced the media campaign against him, calling it "the most infamous, most criminal, and most unjust that has been launched against any people."

Less than six months later, Commander Ernesto "Che" Guevara - the Heroic Guerrilla - and Argentine journalist Jorge Ricardo Masetti, the agency's first director, founded Prensa Latina, whose first information was transmitted on a day like today in 1959.

Prestigious journalists from Latin America supported the agency in its early days and worked there for some time. Among them were renowned professionals such as Masetti's compatriot, Rodolfo Walsh, Uruguayan Carlos María Gutiérrez, as well as Colombian Gabriel García Márquez.

Today, Prensa Latina, despite the difficulties facing the world and, of course, Cuba, and the media manipulations, in addition to the economic blockade imposed by the United States on the largest of the Antilles for more than 60 years, which also affects the information sphere, the agency continues to stand firm, disseminating the truth.

Currently, it transmits more than 300 daily dispatches of national and international events in Spanish, English, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Arabic, and Turkish, and reaches its readers through publications such as Cuba Internacional, Orbe, Negocios en Cuba, The Havana Reporter, and Correos de Cuba.

I cannot fail to mention that this journalist worked at the agency for 33 years, from a very young age, and that it was a great school.

I started at just 23 years old, while still a journalism student, and I can say that my true graduation was precisely the experience I was able to acquire in my work as a journalist alongside colleagues of great experience who were my teachers. Among them were Mexican Carlos Sánchez Flores and my compatriots Gilberto Caballero, Francisco V. Portela, and Manuel Fernández Colino.

At present, although I am not a Prensa Latina worker, I am and will continue to be linked in body and soul to the agency, as I am the Permanent Correspondent of the Canadian magazine CubaPLUS since its emergence 15 years ago, under the tutelage of the agency, which is its co-editor. The magazine has the mission of promoting Real Cuba in the Canadian market, mainly, as well as in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

To all the journalists of Prensa Latina, a big congratulations from the CubaPLUS team, with the certainty that you can always count on us.