Clandestine News Agency

ANCLA was a news agency founded by Rodolfo Walsh that operated during the final military dictatorship in Argentina.

History

ANCLA began operating in 1976 at Walsh's initiative, who invited Carlos Aznárez, Lila Pastoriza and Lucila Pagliai to start the project. With very limited material and human resources, the small group of journalists and Montoneros militants took on the task of challenging military censorship and repression between June 1976 and September 1977, reporting in real time with a sober and direct tone about the genocide being carried out in the country through more than 200 cables.
The agency reported on concentration camps, the discovery of bodies in lakes and deserted areas, internal divisions within the Junta, economic policies, persecution, threats, exile, and the international response to it all.
Many of its members, including its founder, paid with their kidnapping, torture, and disappearance for their opposition to the totalitarian regime. After Walsh’s murder in March 1977, the kidnapping of Pastoriza, and the exile of Aznárez and Pagliani, the agency was led by Horacio Verbitsky and Luis Guagnini.