Abstract Every year, international rankings of the universities are published reflecting their positioning through the evaluation of academic and research quality criteria established in their methodologies. The positioning of Latin American universities in the rankings reflects the ability to research, generate results, and publish scientific output to be cited, as well as evidence of academic excellence, capacity for innovation and social linkage. The present study presents the results of a descriptive analysis based on clusters of eighty-five Latin American universities located in the first fifty positions of ARWU, SIR Scimago, QS and Webometrics rankings, according to their most recent editions published during the year 2019, highlighting the universities located in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia, countries that host 90% of the best positioned universities in Latin America.