Rodrigo Acuña is a teacher, writer and expert on Latin American politics. He has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Politics and International Relations and Spanish/Latin American Studies from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, as well as a Diploma in Education from that same institution. In 2013 he completed a PhD on Venezuelan foreign policy after having been awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) by the Federal Government of Australia.

He has published in numerous media and academic outlets which include ALBORADA: Latin America Uncovered, ARENA Magazine, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Canadian Dimentions, The Conversation, The Diplomat, Eureka Street, Green Left Weekly, Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research (JILAR), Latin America Bureau, Latin American Perspectives, Macquarie Law Journal, New Matilda, North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), Online Opinion, Truthout and Z Network among others. He has been interviewed in The Australian, ABC Radio, SBS Radio (Spanish), Al Jazeera (London), Sputnik (Montevideo), Radio Adelaide, 2ser, Uno Sucre (Sucre), Venezolana de Televisión and The Wire.

He has worked as an educator at both secondary and tertiary level at Macquaire University and UNSW. He has delivered papers and guest lectures on Latin American politics at Australian National University, Sydney University, Cervantes Institute (Sydney), La Trobe University, Macquarie University, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, New South Wales Parliament Theatre, University of Hong Kong and UNSW.

In 2005 he was awarded the Benchmark Prize in Hispanic Studies by UNSW and was a runner-up for the literary competition Open Prose in the Unsweetened 2007 Literary Journal for his first fictional story 'The General's Dreams.' A few years later he was part of the Spanish and Latin American Studies teaching team that won the 2009 Learning and Teaching Award from the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University. From 2020-2024 he was the host of the podcast Indestructible: Latin America with Rodrigo Acuña at Alborada: Latin America Uncovered.

Rodrigo currently works for the NSW Department of Education on a part-time basis and is a contributing editor at Alborada. Together with journalist Nicholas Ford he is working on his first documentary titled ‘Venezuela: The Cost of Challenging an Empire.’ He is also working on a book for Routledge titled The Bolivarian Revolution, Regional Integration and Development: Venezuela’s Counter-Hegemonic Foreign Policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean.

Emails: rodrigo.indepj@gmail.com rodrigo.indepj@protonmail.com