Dr Molly Avery

I am a historian of modern Latin America, with a focus on Latin America’s Cold War, anticommunist internationalism and the history of dictatorship and violence in both the Southern Cone and Central America. While my current research addresses multiple countries in the region, I have a particular interest in the international history of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile (1973-1990).

My current book project draws on sources from the United States, Central and South America to tell the story of Chilean and Argentine involvement in the civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador between 1977 and 1984. I have published two articles related to this research in the Journal of Latin American Studies and The Americas. This book seeks to challenge US-centric interpretations of the international history of Central America and to draw connections between Southern Cone and Central American experiences of violence and dictatorship during the Cold War. This project also connects to my interest in in the history of inter-American relations and the ways in which Latin Americans sought to shape US policy in the hemisphere.

I am currently also working on two new projects, both connected to the history of the end of the Cold War. The first, with Eline van Ommen (Leeds), explores how transnational solidarity activism evolved after the end of the Cold War, taking British solidarity with Chile, El Salvador and Nicaragua as its principal case studies. The second project explores the intersection of the end of the Cold War and democratisation in Chile (1988-90).