Objectives. To describe the associated factors with the intention to work in health centers, health posts (primary care) of medical students who are in first and fifth year of career in Latin America. Materials and methods. A secondary analysis of the data of the Red-LIRHUS was carried out. The bivariate analysis was performed with chi2, crude (PR) and adjusted prevalence (PRa) ratios were calculated with 95% confidence intervals using Poisson regression. A p<0.05 was considered significant. For multivariable analysis nested models were used. Results. A total of 4 276 participants were included. The average age was 20.8 (standard deviation: 2.93). The 94,9% are from urban areas of each country, 35.9% of students were peruvians. The 66,7% belongs to a public university and 59.8% were in the first year of the career. 38.6% have a good perception regarding the salary in their country, on the other hand 45% consider ≤ 2000 USD dollars as monthly income expectation within the next 10 years. Conclusions. The intention to work in health centers, health posts (primary care) is 5.8% in medical students. The factors that were most associated with the intention to work in these places were: if the student cohabited with a partner, good / very good perception of the medical salary in their country, the expectation monthly salary ≤ 2000 US dollars 10 years after finishing the career, the low social / altruistic motivation and the high economic / prestige motivation of the MEM-12 scale.