This article is derived from an institutional research project (DGAPA-PAPIIT N ° 402712, National Autonomous University of Mexico) on compulsory secondary education in thirteen countries in Latin America and Europe. Here, a sample of four Latin American countries (Bolivia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay) is analyzed as representative cases in which lower secondary education (ISCED Level 2/UNESCO: 2011) constitutes the corollary of the national commitment to offer compulsory education. Among the main objectives we highlight the similarities and differences on the prescribed curriculum of lower secondary education from a perspective binding with the international context. Based on a comparative methodological approach, we argue that the cases presented here allow observing different features of the universalization of secondary education in the context of global internationalization trends, obligation and standardization of the basic secondary education offer. In this text we have included the following items: a) demographic overview of the reference population; b) structure and organization of national education systems; c) brief analytical characterization of the national curricula of lower secondary education; and, d) similarities and differences in the configuration of curricular models for said educational level.