By Claudio Sánchez
NOTICIAS, Oaxaca

            The battle by our civic society in Oaxaca, for transparency in the activities of our government institutions is being stubbornly fought on many fronts, in spite of the efforts of our local deputies, like Rito Salinas, to built an ever-higher dike against leaks. This, too, is the case with official information HIV/AIDS in our state.

            The Frente Común Contra el SIDA, A.C. (13 years as en NGO, founded by Bill Wolf (painter), its general coordinator and Sergio Santamaría (theater director) at his side), through agonizing months of soliciting information from COESIDA, did not tire before receiving a partial response or at least a gesture that could be interpreted as a promise of a response. Though pioneers in the information and prevention of this incurable disease, the Frente Común has encountered an insurmountable barrier of “happy statistics” from COESIDA and the Secretary of Health, with their “healthy” official monopoly and the “success” of their efforts to fight this disease, which, curiously each change of governmental, six-year terms, religiously shows a dramatic decline... before returning to its normal upward curve as before.

            Intervening as mediator, was the Director of Government, Javier Fuentes Valdivieso. If that weren’t enough, the head of COESIDA is the Doctor Gabriela Velásquez Rosas, Woman of the Year, the “doña” known not only for her recognition by the company Longines Swiss watches, but also Mayor of this city for her incredible human virtues and sacrifice at the helm of an institution focused on reducing the family drama of seeing, one after another, AIDS patients dying, the majority from the poorest classes. However, in the area of informing the public, COESIDA has been discriminating against the Frente Común.

             There were such absurdities as this: To be formally a member of the Combined Commission on Transparency of COESIDA, one must be a declared person with HIV. Gulp! And not only that, you must have experience in medicine, law, forensics, pharmaceuticals, etc. All that the Frente wants is to oversee that those patients who live in this state receive the medical attention, treatment and complete medicines that can help to improve their quality of life. For this reason, we are asking to see the supply and movements of complete doses of antiretroviral medicines and other substances in their pharmacy. How many patients are receiving attention? How many cases have been reported, how many of those have died, when will the Commission on Transparency be meeting, when will they issue their report, and how much do these services cost?

            Maybe that’s why they were demonstrating such reluctance to share information, which should not be confidential, with an NGO who are experts in the same field; still, the occasional data which are made public by COESIDA and the Secretary of Health, set off red lights at the Frente Común whose information and statistics do not conform with the officials’. And so comes the demand for more information and more precise; we believe covering data with “make-up” impedes our society being aware of the magnitude of this disease.

            The interview began tense; they said “you only use this information to attack the government” (this was one of the only arguments they used to justify their opacity), and only promised transparency and collaboration in the future. The intervention of Fuentes Valdiviesco, would have been perfect if he hadn’t stumbled over and over again in his speeches reminding Bill Wolf, a norteamericano with legal residence in Mexico, of his “foreign” and “tourist” status. Can it be there is a side which is xenophobic, as well as homophobic, and is laying traps for our director of government? Apart from that, he was most cordial, and he became most interested when he was informed that fully sixty percent of HIV infections in our state receive nothing, they are “time-bombs,” uncounted, uncontrolled and uninformed, about to bloat the entire health system. The common enemy in this morbid disease is the disbelief of the population in the “minimalism” put out by our authorities.

            Of the 410 patients reported by COESIDA, 302 are covered by federal resources and 108 by state resources. However, it is known there are more that a thousand cases of AIDS and it is estimated between 11 and 18 thousand infected in Oaxaca. Much is not known, and other organizations, such as “Gunaxhii Guendanabani” in the Isthmus, also confirm that data which they have does not square with the official optimism. For those of us who make up the Frente, this official information about AIDS is a permanent, maximum warning.

            Oaxaca has been selected as the site of this year’s National AIDS Congress happening at the end of November, with the attendance of experts. This is one of the positive accomplishments of those who work at COESIDA, but why not try to “get by with a little help from my friends” as Joe Crocker sang, in the words of Lennon and McCartney? Though they might try to clam up in front of the NGO’s, our community groups are not going to tire in their public criticisms.