Prensa Libre

What is Prensa Libre?

Prensa Libre is a daily newspaper published in Guatemala City. Its history page, published by “la Redacción” on 14 July 2026, describes its birth in 1951 in these words: “El 20 de agosto de ese año nace Prensa Libre, matutino que surge de los ideales de cinco periodistas por informar con honradez, independencia y dignidad.” The same page names the five as Pedro Julio García, Álvaro Contreras Vélez, Mario Sandoval Figueroa, Salvador Girón Collier and Isidoro Zarco, and links to the television channel Guatevisión.^[2]

Its sports coverage is published on a path of the parent site, prensalibre.com/deportes.^[1] No current statement of the company's ownership was retrieved from the newspaper or from a register, so none is given here.

What does Prensa Libre cover?

As retrieved on 26 September 2026, the Deportes section carried items dated that day and the day before, led by football: Guatemala's first match in the Concacaf Nations League, away to Jamaica, the group standings after the first round, and the domestic league, alongside European club football.^[1]

Governance decisions. The section reports sporting bodies' decisions on Guatemalan sport. On 19 March 2024 it published, under Oscar Ordóñez's byline, an account of the IOC Executive Board's provisional lifting of the suspension of the Comité Olímpico Guatemalteco. It stated: “Guatemala llevaba suspendida desde diciembre de 2022 a raíz de una modificación a los estatutos del COG por parte de la Corte de Constitucionalidad (CC), dicha acción fue interpretada por el COI como intervención gubernamental.” It gave three developments before the decision: a meeting in Lausanne on 21 February 2024 between the IOC President and the President of Guatemala; a decision of 1 March 2024 by the Tribunal Electoral del Deporte (Tefede), in its words, “de anular la elección en 2021 del exfutbolista Jorge Rodas como presidente del Comité Olímpico Guatemalteco”; and an extraordinary general assembly of the committee on 16 March 2024. It reported that the IOC reserved the right to restore the suspension and that the situation would be reassessed in December 2024.^[4] That is the newspaper's account; the IOC's own record could not be retrieved.

Its own earlier report dates the start differently. On 16 October 2022, under Fernando López R.'s byline, it stated: “En vista de la decisión de la Junta Ejecutiva del COI del 8 de septiembre de 2022 y dado que no se pudo encontrar una solución entre el CON -COG-y las autoridades pertinentes de Guatemala dentro de los plazos, la suspensión de Guatemala entró en vigencia el 15 de octubre”.^[7]

Historical record. The newspaper's 75th-anniversary site lists events it covered since 1951. Its sporting entries include “19 de abril de 1952: Doroteo Guamuch gana Maratón de Boston”, “13 de octubre de 1960: Teodoro Palacios Flores establece récord de salto” and “19 de marzo de 1967: Guatemala gana copa Norceca”.^[3]

How large is Prensa Libre's audience?

No audited readership figure, circulation audit or web-audience measurement for Prensa Libre was retrieved. The newspaper's own history article and its anniversary site, both read on 26 September 2026, publish no readership or user figures.^[2][3]

Kantar IBOPE Media describes its services in Guatemala as including advertising monitoring and TV audience measurement, and describes a Central American consumer panel of 3,800 households. That is a television and consumer measurement, not a press readership survey, and no figure for Prensa Libre was found in it.^[6]

Reporters Without Borders, in its 2026 entry for Guatemala, writes of the sector as a whole: “The leading print media have gone digital as a result of the political and economic persecution of independent journalism.” It does not name Prensa Libre in that sentence.^[5]

Since when has Prensa Libre existed?

The dates here are the newspaper's own. Its history page gives 20 August 1951 for the first issue, as quoted above, and states of its first staff: “Salvador Girón Collier y Carlos Larrañaga Gomar estaban a cargo de los deportes.” Sport was therefore, on its own account, a section from the first year.^[2]

Its anniversary site is titled “75 Aniversario Prensa Libre” and names the same founding date and the same five founders.^[3] No independent record of the first issue, such as a legal deposit entry, was retrieved, so the date rests on the newspaper's own account.

Why does Prensa Libre matter in Guatemala's sport?

Prensa Libre publishes a daily sports section that on 26 September 2026 covered the national team, the domestic league and international football.^[1] It reported the IOC Executive Board's provisional lifting of the suspension of the Guatemalan Olympic Committee on the day of the decision, 19 March 2024, dating the suspension from December 2022; its own report of 16 October 2022 had stated that the suspension took effect on 15 October 2022.^[4][7]

Its anniversary chronology records sporting events of national note, including Doroteo Guamuch's Boston Marathon win of 1952, as it gives them.^[3] Reporters Without Borders ranks Guatemala 128th of 180 countries in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, with a score of 43.21; that ranking concerns the country, not this newspaper.^[5]