The main characteristics of publications on mental health in times of COVID-19, made by authors affiliated with Latin American institutions, are here described. A retrospective and descriptive analysis of 2,656 articles indexed in Scopus database during 2020 is conducted. This database was chosen for its high-quality scientific journals. The results indicate that Latin American scientific production represents 4.74% of the world production, and Brazil is the country with the largest production of publications, followed by Colombia, Mexico and Chile. Latin American scientific works have been published in 82 journals. Psychiatry Research is the journal with the largest number of publications, followed by Estudos De Psicologia Campinas (Brazil). The authors are mainly affiliated with institutions in Brazil, and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul as well as Universidad del Rosario in Colombia are the institutions with the largest number of publications. Review articles and letters to the editor are the most cited types of publications. Finally, it was found that the most used keywords were the descriptors coronavirus, pandemic, mental disease, mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. We conclude that in Latin America there is a need for further research on mental health among health care personnel and the general population in order to establish knowledge that creates public policies for mental health problems generated during the course of the pandemic