San Jose, Feb 11 (Prensa Latina; additional context by The Costa Rica Star) Journalists, diplomats and representatives of alternative media and social movements in Costa Rica stressed here today the importance of the Latin American News Agency Prensa Latina (PL) for covering the international situation, especially in Latin America.

The role of this agency was the focus of a meeting held at the residence of the Ambassador of Cuba in San Jose, Danilo Sanchez, on the occasion of the visit by head of the PL Information Vice President’s Office Victor Carriba.

Participants stressed the need for opening a PL Office in Costa Rica for local media to get a different view of what is happening in the world from the information handled by mainstream media.

Carriba and the Cuban ambassador were received by the Minister of Communications, Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, who offered his collaboration for the eventual installation of a PL Office in Costa Rica’s capital.

They also discussed with the President of the National System of Radio and Television (Sinart), German Vargas, on the prospects for relations between that entity and the agency Prensa Latina.

They spoke the director and head of information of the television channel Teletica, Ignacio Santos and Lazarus Malvarez respectively.

Prensa Latina is the official state news agency of Cuba, founded in March 1959 in the wake of the Cuban Revolution. The initiative of founding this news agency was proposed by the iconic revolutionary figure Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

The intention of Prensa Latina has always been to serve Latin America by mainly reporting in the Spanish language, although dissemination of government propaganda and neutralization of the United States media has always been its primary mission. These days, however, Prensa Latina also reports in English.

As an international news agency, Prensa Latina once had a bureau in the U.S.; alas, its license would be revoked in the late 1960s after the Fidel Castro regime kicked out the United Press International and Associated Press news agencies.

The uncomfortable relations of Prensa Latina with the Cuban intelligence and spying agencies have in the past prompted deportations of bureau chiefs from Caribbean and South American nations.