Poverty in Latin America: intra-regional differences and major trends

Abstract

The article discusses the general panorama of poverty in Latin America, searching to show both the dynamic and the heterogeneity of this phenomenon in different countries. To do that, the informations were separated in three different groups of countries: Mercosul, Andian Community, and Central America countries. This procedure shows the situation where the poverty has more level of incident and the countries that have more successful in the fight against poverty. In spite of the fact that Latin America has a poverty level higest than its level of development, the paper concludes that Latin America is still the region with higher level of inequality in the world. This fact reveals the huge challenges that local governments will face in the next decades.