Agencia EFE

On January 3, 1939, Ramón Serrano Súñer signed the decree establishing Agencia EFE as a tool for the Francoist faction. The new agency emerged from the chaos of the Spanish Civil War with a clear mandate to broadcast the regime's narrative to the rest of the world. José Antonio Giménez-Arnau, Vicente Gállego, and Manuel Aznar Zubigaray joined Serrano Súñer in building the infrastructure that would eventually become the fourth-largest wire service on the planet.

Today the organization operates from the Edificio Génesis in Madrid while maintaining editorial desks in Bogotá, Cairo, and Rio de Janeiro. Its staff includes roughly 3,000 journalists from over 60 nationalities who file reports from more than 180 cities across 120 countries. This global network distributes approximately three million news items every year in text, photography, video, audio, and multimedia formats.

Although the Spanish government holds a significant share through the Ministry of Economy, EFE functions with a level of autonomy that distinguishes it from typical state broadcasters. It serves thousands of media outlets worldwide and remains the dominant force in Spanish-language journalism. Recent activity in late 2026 shows the agency covering major international events ranging from protests in France to diplomatic movements involving Pope Leo and political figures like Javier Milei. [edit]