Under a Foucauldian reading of the power-knowledge nexus, this paper combines the diffusion theory and the discourse analysis to study knowledge asymmetries present in the diffusion process of ethnoracial affirmative actions in selected Andean countries. The study aims to show the transnational connections between legal and / or academic discourses and the ethno-racial representations, based on the analysis of recent legislation and constitutional reforms, a literature review of national academic production and interviews with leaders of indigenous and Afro-descendant organizations as well as with servants of public companies related to ethno-racial and anti-discrimination policies. At all these levels (law, social sciences, social movements, public policies) the obtained evidence reveals how expert knowledge places the U.S.A. as a paradigm or model, obscuring the experience of other countries and ruling a liberal multiculturalist agenda. This transfer (vertical, unilateral) of knowledge
has had a notable impact in Colombia and Chile, but it has been resisted by alternative epistemic projects, especially in Ecuador and Bolivia.