Agencia Guatemalteca de Noticias (AGN)

The Agencia Guatemalteca de Noticias (AGN) is Guatemala’s official state news agency and digital government news service. It was established on 6 October 2010 as an information channel of the Secretariat for Social Communication of the Presidency (SCSPR), under the Secretariat’s legal mandate to formulate and execute the communication policy of the Government of the Republic. AGN produces and distributes news covering the activities of the President, the Vice-Presidency, ministries, secretariats and other government institutions, through a continuously updated website and social-media channels. AGN presents itself as part of the official state-media network alongside Radio Nacional TGW, Diario de Centro América and Canal de Gobierno.

Media assets

News agency: AGN

Ownership and governance

AGN operates directly under the Secretariat for Social Communication of the Presidency, the executive-branch body responsible for formulating, coordinating and executing the government’s communications policy. AGN was created in 2010 as a channel of the SCSPR under the Secretariat’s existing legal mandate, rather than as an autonomous public-service news agency. It functions under the direction of the Secretariat’s leadership and communications structure.

Under President Bernardo Arévalo, who took office in January 2024, the SCSPR was initially led by Santiago Palomo and, from November 2025, by Karina J. García Ruano, who was sworn in as Secretary of Social Communication of the Presidency after Palomo was designated for diplomatic functions. Public SCSPR documents also identify Juan Manuel Vega López as Director of Information and Press within the Secretariat, the area under which AGN’s news operation functions. There is no independent board, public-service statute or fixed-term protected leadership insulating AGN from the Presidency.

As the news-agency arm of the executive’s communications apparatus, AGN is by design an instrument of the incumbent administration. This direct control by the Presidency’s communications secretariat is the core basis for the State-Controlled classification, and it does not depend on the political orientation of any particular government: the agency served previous administrations and now serves the current one.

Source of funding and budget

AGN is funded by the state through the Secretariat for Social Communication of the Presidency. Its financing is embedded in the SCSPR budget and public financial-execution structure rather than disclosed as a separate, ring-fenced agency allocation. SMM found no current public source that isolates AGN’s standalone annual budget. As an operation funded directly through the Presidency’s communications structure, without independent or ring-fenced financing, its resources are controlled by the executive.

Editorial independence

AGN’s editorial agenda is directed by the Presidency’s communications apparatus and centres on disseminating official information about the government’s activities, programmes and strategic objectives. Its output focuses heavily on the work of the President, the Vice-Presidency, ministries, secretariats and other public institutions, functioning as a channel for official information rather than as an independent newswire.

There is no domestic legislation or independent oversight mechanism guaranteeing AGN’s editorial autonomy. Its content is aligned with the government that owns and funds it. Like Guatemala’s other state outlets under the Presidency’s communications structure, that alignment is structural and persists across changes of administration, because the agency is operated by the executive’s own communications secretariat.

AI and digital policy

SMM found no evidence that AGN or the Secretariat for Social Communication had published a dedicated public editorial AI-governance policy as of mid-2026. Guatemala does not yet have a comprehensive AI-specific law or dedicated AI regulator, though the state has begun engaging with AI policy and digital-modernisation initiatives, including work toward a national AI strategy.

As an entirely digital news operation, AGN relies on its website and social-media channels to distribute content. SMM found no disclosed framework governing the use of AI by the agency in editorial production, verification, attribution, synthetic-media labelling, recommendation systems, audience analytics or human oversight. Given that AGN is the Presidency’s own news-agency operation, any AI adoption would in practice be governed by the government’s communications priorities rather than by an independent editorial policy.

Classification rationale

AGN is classified State-Controlled (SC), unchanged across SMM cycles. It is operated directly by the Presidency through its Secretariat for Social Communication, funded from the executive’s communications budget, led within the Secretariat’s appointed communications structure, and editorially dedicated to disseminating the government’s messaging, with no statute, independent board or oversight mechanism providing arm’s-length independence. As the news-agency arm of the executive’s communications apparatus, it is among the most directly state-controlled outlets in Guatemala’s media landscape, alongside Canal de Gobierno. The classification does not depend on the political character of any particular government and is unchanged for 2026.

June 2026