Edelberto Torres Rivas (November 22, 1930 - December 31, 2018), was a Guatemalan sociologist recognized for his Latin American studies in political sociology regarding social structures, state formation, social changes, and especially democratic processes in Guatemala. He was secretary general of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO), consultant to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and coordinator of the six volumes of the General History of Central America (1993).