Guatemala City, (EFE).- The EFE Agency inaugurated an exhibition in Guatemala in which it narrates through 50 photographs its half century of presence in Central America.
50 years in which he brought the region closer to the world, recounting everything from civil wars and natural disasters, to his folklore and social activism.
The exhibition “Central America, 50 years in 50 images”, installed in the Cultural Center of Spain in Guatemala City, opens with a photograph of the Pacaya volcano, located just fifty kilometers from the exhibition site.
The image, taken in May 2021 by EFE photographer Esteban Biba, captures the moment in which a believer holds a large cross in front of a river of lava, while praying that the magma does not reach nearby towns, destroying everything. in his wake.
Other images of Biba add to this narration of recent events in Guatemala and the region.
Like the migratory crisis, in which a few soldiers are shown trying to prevent the advance of a tide of migrants.
Or a photograph marked by light, in which indigenous women cook during the wake of 61 victims of the internal armed conflict in the country (1960-1996).
“We have tried to condense our gaze and our contribution to the memory of this region in the photographic exhibition,” said EFE’s Director of Strategy, Soledad Álvarez, accompanied by the Spanish ambassador, José María Laviña, and the Secretary of Communication. Social of the Presidency of Guatemala, Kevin López.
“It is the brave, timely and honest look of EFE photographers and journalists who in five decades have witnessed important social, economic, political changes and exceptional cultural and natural wealth,” added Álvarez.
Milestones in Central America
The Spanish ambassador also highlighted that it is a journey on “what have been milestones of the Central American reality.
From the Sandinista revolution to the burning of the Spanish embassy in 1980 here in Guatemala, or the issue of the gangs or migration”.
This exhibition, organized with the support of the Spanish Embassy, marks the high point in Guatemala of the commemorative acts for the start half a century ago of ACAN-EFE (Central American News Agency-EFE).
A regional news agency that was born in 1972 through the creation of a society that was joined by the most important Central American media.
Among the journalists who were part of EFE, Álvarez wanted to remember the Guatemalan Rodolfo Móvil, “Chofo”.
On the first anniversary of his death this Wednesday, a professional who “became a reference in Central American journalism as founder and director of Nuestro Diario,” and later general director of El Periódico.
These activities for the anniversary have the support of Coca-Cola, the Ficohsa bank, the Cervecería Centro Americana and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), as well as Iberia and Barceló Hotels.
Freedom of the press
The celebrations this Wednesday also coincide with World Press Freedom Day.
The Secretary of Social Communication remarked in this regard that “in Guatemala, freedom of the press is guaranteed and committed, unlike countries where unfortunately there is interference, excessive regulation of content and even censorship.”
Also speaking today in the Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre, the president of EFE, Gabriela Cañas, recalled that the agency “contributed, as only free and rigorous journalism can do, to make the reality of Central America known (…) But unfortunately , the consolidation of freedoms, especially that of the press, continues to be an unfinished struggle”.
“30 years ago, the then president of Guatemala, Ramiro de León Carpio, proclaimed that without freedom there can be no democracy.
Today, sadly, those words are still an aspiration and not a reality in a number of nations that, instead of diminishing, grows from year to year,” Cañas stressed.
At the end of April, the Inter-American Press Association (SIP) warned in a report that freedom of expression “is being degraded” in Guatemala due to the actions taken by the country’s Prosecutor’s Office against members of the journalistic union.