Rodrigo Véliz Estrada

I am a Research Fellow at the Lateinamerika-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin, specialising in the 20th-century Cold War in the Caribbean Basin, with a focus on authoritarian internationalism, regional diplomacy, and political violence from a global perspective.

My current research examines the diplomatic and security networks of the early Cold War in the Greater Caribbean Basin (1944–1955). My current manuscript, The Caribbean Basin and the shaping of Latin America’s early Cold War (1944–1955), is under final review with the University of New Mexico Press. My articles have appeared in leading journals such as Hispanic American Historical Review, The Americas, Latin American Research Review, and the Journal of Latin American Studies.

I'm author of four books, including Manuel Colom Argueta and the Democratic Collapse of the Central American Cold War, 1954–1979 by Bloomsbury Academics (Feb. 2026).

In 2026 I was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (European Commission, Seal of Excellence, score 91.8%).

I have held research fellowships with the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, with the CEDLA, University of Amsterdam, the LLILAS-Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, University of Texas at Austin, and a Teaching and Visiting Fellowships and at the School of History, University of Leeds. I previously served as Head of the J. Joaquín Pardo Chair on Historical Research at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.

I hold a Ph.D. in History from CIESAS (México, 2020), passed with distinction.

Contact

Lateinamerika-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Rüdesheimer Str. 54-56, Raum 226
14197 Berlin, Germany
rveliz@zedat.fu-berlin.de