Section:
Latinamerica
Published: July 26th, 2002.
Latin American marchers demand
treatment access at AIDS2002
By Richard Stern*
People Living with HIV/AIDS from Latin
America and their supporters
expressed their frustrations at an
impromptu demonstration inside the
grounds of the 14th International AIDS
Conference in Barcelona
lateThursday afternoon.
Shouting "access for all" and blowing
whistles, about 50 marchers circled
the exhibition booths and stopped at
the UNAIDS booth wherevarious
speakers from the region denounced the
lack of commitment onthe part of
National Governments in the region as
well as theInternational Agencies,
including UNAIDS and PAHO, whose role
it is to facilitate expanded access
to care and treatment by dialoguing wit
hand supporting National AIDS
programs.
In a press release, marchers presented
a series of demands to UNAIDS
related to various regional issues.
Marchers received loud applause as they
passed various NGO booths from all
parts of the world. As they passed
pharmaceutical company booths they
chanted "generic medications now."
Excluding Brazil which provides
universal anti-retroviral acces onlyabout
25,000 of an estimated 150,000 people
from the region have access to
anti-retroviral therapy.
Marchers were from Costa Rica, Ecuador,
Peru, Chile, El
Salvador,Guatemala, Argentina,
Venezuela, Colombia, Boliva and Brasil.
The marchers also decried conference
organizers for not including more
Latin American people in the agenda and
for issues related to logistics
and organization. "I felt like I was
placed into a ghetto by Conference
Organizers and it has affected my
health," said one PWAs from Peru,
referring to University housing which
was provided for Conference
Scholarships recipients, some 25
kilometers from the Conference Site. No
shuttle bus service was available, only
public transportation, with the
nearest train station nearly a
kilometer's walk from the University
Residence.
Another asked "how is it possible that
Conference Organizers didn't
provide us a forum to express what we
need? We are dying, and the
Conference organizers don't seem to
care."
In their press release the group stated
that "what we have experienced as
a group in Barcelona within the
conference itself has been a sense of
discrimination and rejection. The Latin
American reality has been
consistently devalued."
At some point, activists from Act Up
Paris joined the march, but when they
began to spray paint the pharmaceutical
company booths, Latin American
activists left the activity while the
Act Up group continued to go from
booth to booth.
*Director
Agua Buena Human Rights Association
San Jose, Costa Rica
tel/fax 506-2280-3548
rastern@racsa.co.cr
