Puerto Rican bureaucrats unwinding for the holidays got an unexpected wake-up call from AIDS activists in Washington, DC, yesterday evening. At 6 p.m., as many as 40 members of local and national AIDS organizations such as D.C. Fights Back, the Campaign to End AIDS, Housing Works, ACT UP Philadelphia, and the Student Global AIDS Campaign picketed outside the National Geographic Society, where the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration held its holiday party. Protesters chanted “Puerto Rico AIDS Crisis, Save Lives Now” and, targeting one of Puerto Rico’s biggest moneymakers, emptied bottles of rum on the sidewalk.
The protest is the latest in a series of actions intended to put pressure on both the local Puerto Rican and United States federal governments. In November, activist groups staged a “die-in” in downtown Manhattan to call attention to the Puerto Rican government’s failure to respond to the crisis. Federal audits conducted by the U.S. government have revealed that Puerto Rico has mismanaged federal AIDS funding, failing to provide medication and services to people with HIV and AIDS. Meanwhile, the AIDS crisis in Puerto Rico is escalating, with an HIV rate twice that of the U.S. mainland. Puerto Rico has a population of 3.9 million and the fifth-highest concentration of AIDS cases in all the United States and its territories. There are currently 12,000 people living with HIV in Puerto Rico, and it is estimated that there are nearly as many living with the virus who are unaware of their HIV-positive status.
Rafael Torruella, an activist and PhD candidate at the City University of New York, took part in the protest and points out that activists are taking issue with the U.S. federal government as well as with Puerto Rican officials. “The government has intervened in other places where such mismanagement has occurred,” he says, claiming that the federal government’s view of Puerto Ricans as “second-class citizens” explains the lack of federal action. Torruella believes that the crisis needs to be addressed at its root, with a commitment to prevention. “Syringe-exchange, detox and rehab services are almost nonexistent,” he says, explaining that the unwieldy policy and procedures surrounding such programs make access to them nearly impossible. With half of all new infections occurring in IV-drug users, these programs are especially crucial.
Torruella was happy with the response to the protest, noting that some people on their way to the party stopped and talked with the protesters, often showing sympathy for the cause. The picketers were also visible to partygoers throughout the night, Torruella noted, through the windows of the National Geographic Society. “Just because it’s Christmas doesn’t mean people aren’t dying,” he said. “The crisis in Puerto Rico continues.”
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