Under represented and excluded, the black population faces an uphill battle toward equality.

There are nearly four times as many people of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean than of indigenous descent, yet the poverty and discrimination of the former group suffers is largely ignored, despite the fact that they are just as severe, or even worse, than the conditions facing the region's aboriginal inhabitants.

While the indigenous population, which comprises an estimated 40 million people, has taken on an increasingly active political role in Latin America , the 150 million Afro-descendants of the region have extremely limited political power and lack cohesive organizations to represent their interests. Additionally, their situation also receives less attention in international forums and academic research.

Studies reveal that over 90 percent of the descendants of slaves brought to the Americas from Africa during the colonial era live below the poverty line, have the most poorly paying jobs, and have low levels of formal education.

“Blacks remain the most excluded sector of the population, even more so than indigenous people”, noted Quince Duncan, a Costa Rican researcher and member of the International Scientific Committee of the Slave Route Project.

The project launched in 1994 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is aimed at “breaking the silence” surrounding the slave trade and promoting greater awareness of its causes and consequences.

A 2001 study by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) noted that the 150 million people of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean population in the region, who represent almost 30 percent of the region's total population of 552 million – with the largest numbers concentrated in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela – have a highly limited presence in politics and government.

The study, titled “Ethnic-Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia in Latin America and the Caribbean ” concluded that the problems facing the black population are ignored to the point of being invisible. “The situation of blacks has received less attention than that of indigenous people, because they arrived in the Americas after the European conquest.

They do not constitute an aboriginal culture in the region, and their integration into the workforce was faster and more complete,” Duncan said.

The ECLAC study also acknowledged the progress made in some parts of the region, stating that the marginalization of blacks “is beginning to change with a greater presence of Afro-Latin American social movements in Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil and other countries, which not only put forward their demands in international forums and to their respective governments, but also promote the visibility of their cultural particularities as groups that have a unique identity with a long history.”