Nueva York — Doce manifestantes fueron arrestados ayer por paralizar el tránsito en la intersección de las calles Worth y Broadway, en el Bajo Manhattan, como parte de un acto de desobediencia civil para llamar la atención sobre la crisis de VIH/SIDA en Puerto Rico.

Un nutrido grupo de más de cien personas, portando banderas de Puerto Rico y Estados Unidos, marchó desde Foley Square gritando: “Hay que salvar vidas en Puerto Rico”. Al llegar a la mencionada intersección, 12 de ellos se acostaron a lo largo del cruce peatonal, causando cuadra tras cuadra de tráfico en la Broadway.

En un lapso de 10 minutos, más de veinte policías descendieron sobre la escena desde toda dirección. Llegaron en patrulleros, montados a caballo y con perros. Cuando los 12 desobedientes se negaron a mover, la policía se los llevó uno por uno en medio del aplauso de los otros manifestantes. La protesta fue organizada por una coalición de organizaciones que incluye a Housing Works, UDCAS New York y CitiWide Harm Reduction. Este grupo exigió que el Departamento de Salud de Estados Unidos tome control inmediato de los fondos Ryan White, otorgados al municipio de San Juan y al Departamento Estatal de Salud para asistir a pacientes con VIH/SIDA.

“Desde el 2006, los servicios y los tratamientos para el VIH/SIDA se han visto severamente afectados en Puerto Rico por mal manejo de fondos y fraude”, dijeron los organizadores.

En diciembre del año pasado, el FBI allanó varias oficinas del Departamento Estatal de Salud de Puerto Rico como parte de una investigación de corrupción que sigue pendiente.

“Estamos muy preocupados por esta situación, pero no podemos tomar control de los fondos. Le hemos pedido a las autoridades en Puerto Rico que accedan voluntariamente a nombrar a un intermediario fiscal, como se ha hecho en otra ciudades como Washington DC, pero no aceptaron”, indicó Tina Cheatham, portavoz de la Administración de Recursos y Servicios de Salud de Estados Unidos, agencia que supervisa el programa Ryan White.

De acuerdo a cifras del Centro de Control de Enfermedades, unas 30 mil personas actualmente viven con VIH/SIDA en la isla. Más de 19 mil han muerto a causa de este mal.

A juicio de Ramón Alejandro Pabón, portavoz del municipio de San Juan, se está haciendo todo lo posible por ayudar a los pacientes. “El alcalde Jorge Santini se está asegurando que los fondos lleguen a los 2,150 pacientes que servimos a través de nuestro programa Más Salud”, señaló.

El municipio ha recibido 12 millones de dólares en fondos Ryan White para el año fiscal 2007, mientras que al Departamento Estatal de Salud se la han otorgado $35 millones.

“No es justo que la gente se esté muriendo por la vulgar y asquerosa corrupción que hay en el gobierno puertorriqueño. Los pacientes esperan y esperan para que les den medicamentos, mientras ellos se llenan los bolsillos con el dinero”, dijo Amy Vélez, una de las arrestadas por desobediencia civil, antes de ser trasladada al cuartel de policía.

Los doce detenidos fueron puestos en libertad después de ser acusados de atentar contra el orden público y bloquear el tránsito vehicular.

humberto.garcia@eldiariony.com

Link to El Dario Online

At a press conference preceding the traffic-stopping protest, activists demanded immediate federal control of AIDS funding in Puerto Rico in order to get medical care and HIV prevention to those in need. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt has the power to instruct the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the division of HHS that oversees HIV/AIDS in all U.S. states and territories, to take over the dispersal of millions in Ryan White CARE Act funds in Puerto Rico. HRSA has taken such action in U.S cities such as Washington, D.C, Baltimore and Orlando. So far HRSA has refused to get involved in Puerto Rico.

Activists also want an independent authority to investigate the mismanagement of Puerto Rican AIDS dollars and a plan to end it and immediate action to provide HIV prevention tools to IV drug users, who account for the majority of new infections in Puerto Rico.

Housing Works, UDCAS New York, CitiWide Harm Reduction, Harm Reduction Coalition, New York City AIDS Housing Network, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Washington Heights CORNER Project and ACT UP Philly all endorsed the protest and press conference.

Today’s action in New York was only one of various efforts to put pressure on the federal government. On Tuesday, November 13 Housing Works, the Latino Commission on AIDS, the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, UDCAS NY and UDCAS Puerto Rico collaborated on a phone zap targeting Puerto Rican Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and San Juan City Mayor, Jorge Santini Padilla.

More than 30,000 people in Puerto Rico have HIV/AIDS, and more than 19,000 Puerto Ricans have died from AIDS-related causes.

To learn more, visit The New York Times Link and the Housing Works AIDS Issues Update for in-depth articles about the HIV/AIDS crisis in Puerto Rico.

HOUSING WORKS is dedicated to fighting the twin crises of HIV/AIDS and homelessness. We are the largest grassroots AIDS organization in the U.S. and the largest minority-controlled AIDS organization in the U.S. We provide housing, medical care, job training, case management, HIV prevention, counseling and testing, and other services to low-income and homeless New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS.

Please support AIDS Programs of the National Minority AIDS Council CFC #10557 Link

Link to New York Times Article

In December, the FBI raided four San Juan Health Department offices, freezing millions of U.S. Ryan White CARE Act funds intended to help people with HIV/AIDS.

The Puerto Rican Health Department claims there is no longer an AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) waiting list for medications, but advocates have documented hundreds of people who are still waiting to receive medications on which their lives depend.

“The U.S. government has a responsibility to serve all of its people,” said Johnny Guaylupo, an openly HIV-positive Puerto Rican Housing Works employee who was arrested today. “I am happy to go to jail if that’s what it takes for federal officials to wake up.” Guaylupo and others were released this afternoon and are available to speak to the press.

Since 2006, AIDS services and treatment in Puerto Rico have been crippled by mismanagement and fraud.

Audit after audit by the federal government of millions in U.S. tax dollars has documented Puerto Rico’s failure to provide basic care to people with HIV/AIDS.

Outraged by U.S. government indifference to the escalating AIDS crisis in Puerto Rico, a dozen AIDS activists stopped traffic for half an hour in downtown Manhattan today to demand immediate federal oversight of Puerto Rico’s AIDS funding. All twelve were arrested at the intersection of Broadway and Worth streets, as a raucous crowd of about 75 supporters chanted “Puerto Rico AIDS Crisis, Save Lives Now.”

Puerto Rico Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini are responsible for the HIV/AIDS health crisis in Puerto Rico:

*   The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the City of San Juan have grossly misspent Federal Ryan White dollars.

*   Audit after audit of Ryan White CARE Act expenditures in Puerto Rico have found mismanagement, fraud, and failure to provide basic lifesaving care.

*   As a result, new HIV infections, new AIDS diagnoses and deaths from AIDS in Puerto Rico are disproportionately high and getting higher.

*   Many people have no access to AIDS medications, many AIDS service organizations have curtailed or shut down services, and many employees of AIDS services organizations have gone months without pay.

HIV/AIDS advocates, Puerto Rican activists and their allies have called repeatedly for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the City of San Juan to do their job.

Now it’s time for you to demand action that could save lives. It is time to tell Santini and Acevedo Vilá to act now to save lives and end the AIDS crisis in Puerto Rico.

(1) Call Puerto Rico Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá toll-free at 888-802-1207

(2) Call San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini-Padilla toll-free at 866-802-0640 (ask for the Mayor at extension 3000)

Tell them:

“Long term survivors, veterans of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, people with AIDS are dying in Puerto Rico because you haven’t taken action to help them. We need action for change:

*   Stop covering up and allow an immediate federal receivership for AIDS funding in Puerto Rico to ensure medical care and HIV prevention for people who don’t have it.

*   Conduct a full needs assessment of the patients, community based organizations, treatment and prevention education programs, to ascertain the real situation in Puerto Rico. If needed, declare the need for more federal funding under a receivership program.

*   Allow an independent authority to investigate the mismanagement and come up with a plan to end it.

*   Take immediate action to provide HIV prevention tools to IV drug users and empowerment efforts to fight stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS.

FAX ZAP TOO! You can also fax the Governor at 787-724-6942 and the Mayor at 787-725-5674 – download this document [link to PDF] on the Puerto Rico AIDS crisis and fax away!

This action created and supported by the Campaign to End AIDS, the National Minority AIDS Council, Unid@s Dandole Cara al SIDA Puerto Rico and Unid@s Dandole Cara al SIDA New York, Latino Commission on AIDS (need to insert hyperlink) – it’s www.latinoaids.org, and is an affiliated project of the Prevention Justice Mobilization [link www.preventionjustice.org].

To get involved contact activists on the front line:

WEB: unidosdandolecaraalsida.homestead.com

EMAIL: udcas-pr-home-chapter@googlegroups.com

PHONE: James Albino, NMAC: 202-234-5120 X303

* There are 3,927,776 people living on the Island of Puerto Rico.1

* 29,092 cumulative AIDS cases of persons of all ages have been reported from the beginning of the epidemic through 2005.2

* In 2005, there were 1,033 new AIDS cases reported on the Island.2 Ranked 10th highest in the United States.

* There is an estimated 10,822 persons living with AIDS as reported in 2005. 2

* Puerto Rico has the SECOND HIGHEST death rate due to AIDS in the U.S. 2

* 49.5% of HIV transmissions are through Injection Drug Use 2, however there are very limited needle exchange programs available throughout the island.

THE CRISIS

* People with AIDS in Puerto Rico have had to endure mismanagement and outright fraud in their ability to access HIV services for over 15 years.

* Puerto Rico does not receive Medicaid. This creates a shortage in health care resources for the Island as well for administrative infrastructure for the Department of Health.

* There is a waiting list of people waiting to be enrolled in the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. There is also a waiting list of people who are already enrolled in Puerto Rico’s ADAP program but are waiting for medicines and suffer from frequent interruptions in pharmacy access or regularly receive incomplete prescriptions (2 but not 4 of the drugs prescribed)

THE SOLUTION

1. The government needs to contract with a third party non-profit to manage the Federal funds.

2. There needs to be immediate funds made available from the federal government and the government of Puerto Rico to provide medicines and care.

3. Third, there need to be Congressional oversight hearings and fact-finding about what led to the current crisis and what the needed solutions are.

1 U.S. Census Data 2006

2 The Henry Kaiser Family Foundation, www.statehealthfacts.org