SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

AGENCIA EFE’s Chairman, Mr. José Antonio Vera, inaugurated today in the capital of Panama a photography exhibition commemorating the 75th anniversary of the news agency, at a ceremony which was attended by the capital’s Mayor, Mr. José Blandón, and the Administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), Mr. Jorge Luis Quijano.

In the opening of the exhibition 'EFE 75 years in photographs, 25 years building Latin America', at the Plaza de la Ciudad del Saber, also were present this facilities’ Manager, Mr. Jorge Arosemena; the papal nuncio Mr. Andrés Carrascosa, and the Spanish Ambassador in Panama, Mr. Jesús Silva, among other personalities.

Commitment with Latin America

'We feel a very deep commitment with Latin America, and in particular with Central America, in our capacity as the first regional news agency”, declared Mr. Vera when he stressed that the exhibition includes images which show special events in Latin America and Spain.

Mr. Vera highlighted the hard work carried out by EFE’s journalists, as well as the defense of the Spanish language by the news agency, the biggest and the first to offer its services in this language, and which is present in 120 countries all over the world.

For his part, Mr. Blandón stated that it was an honor that Agencia Efe, and its Central American service, Acan- EFE, 'have set up' in Panama since 1973 their 'operating base for the region'.

'We look forward to sharing with you many more years, and that we continue having that spirit and that democratic and freedom flavor which exists in our country”, said Panama’s mayor.

For his part, the Manager of the Ciudad del Saber declared to EFE that the Spanish news agency played a 'key role' for Central America, and “very especially” for Panama and its struggle to achieve the sovereignty over the interoceanic Canal.

'They helped us to make known Panama’s cause all over the world', highlighted Mr. Arosemena.

Exhibition for the anniversary of Agencia EFE

The itinerant exhibition is composed by 75 images chosen from the more than 17 Million photographs which make up EFE’s graphic archive, which including Panama, where it will stay until next November 6th, has already been displayed in ten Latin American countries.

Among the images in the exhibition is a meeting which took place in 1940 between general Francisco Franco and Adolf Hitler when they were inspecting the troops at Hendaye, France, in the middle of the Second World War.

Also one of Albert Einstein during his historical speech in 1950 to the US television station NBC against the use of the hydrogen bomb or H-Bomb, and one of the terrorist attack against the suburban trains at Atocha, Santa Eugenia and el Pozo de Madrid on March 11th, 2004.

About Panama there are photographs of political events regarding the transfer of the interoceanic canal by the US on December 1999, which was attended by six Presidents and King Juan Carlos I of Spain.

Among them is one image of the signing of the Canal Treaties by the US President Jimmy Carter and Panama President Omar Torrijos in 1977.

The exhibition was organized in Panama by the urban adviser from Panama City’s mayor office, Mr. José Isturaín. It has been sponsored by the Spanish company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) and the Ciudad del Saber has made a contribution to it.

Agencia EFE has more than 3,000 professionals all along the world, who cover more than 120 countries, and it generates daily more than 5,000 news items on text, photograph, audio, video and multimedia format.

In 1995, the Premio Príncipe de Asturias for Communication and Humanities acknowledged the work carried out by several generations of Efe’s professionals and their effort for strengthening the relationship between Latin America and Spain.

About Grupo SEPI

La AGENCIA EFE belongs to Grupo SEPI, a corporate holding which includes a total of 16 state-owned companies in which it has direct, majority shareholding participations, with a final workforce of more than 74,000 professionals in 2013; the Spanish state-owned television and radio corporation, Corporación Radiotelevisión Española, which is attached to SEPI, and one public foundation. Equally, SEPI has direct minority shareholdings in a further nine companies, and indirect shareholdings in more than one hundred companies.