From: MPetrelis@aol.com
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 18:19:24 EDT
Subject: ACT UP dispatches envoy to Puerto Rico for AIDS trial


 TO: Medical and political editors
 
 For Immediate Release                                                        
        
 Contacts: 
 Wayne Turner
 in Puerto Rico: 787-721-6900
 in Washington: 202-547-9404
 Jose F. Colon
 787-283-8623
 Michael Petrelis
 415-621-6267
 
     ACT UP ENVOY DEPARTS ON FACT-FINDING TOUR OF PUERTO RICO;
 
                           AIDS Activists Demanding Federal Audits
 
 Washington, DC - The AIDS advocacy group ACT UP is shuttling Wayne Turner to 
San Juan, Puerto Rico, to investigate how $2.2 million in U.S. federal funds 
were diverted from an AIDS institute and into reelection war-chests.  Turner 
is in San Juan from April 28 through May 4.
 
 	Turner has been invited by Jose F. Colon, a leading AIDS activist in 
Puerto Rico 
 who has focused attention on the current trial to of former executives of 
the institute who are charged with diverting the AIDS dollars.  The money was 
earmarked for life-saving drugs and services for AIDS patients, some of whom 
died because politicians used the funding for political campaigns.  
 
 	The governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Rossello, was head of San Juan's 
health 
 department in the early 1990s when the AIDS funding was misspent.  Rossello 
was 
 accused by ex-employees of the defunct San Juan AIDS Institute of receiving 
$250,000 of the diverted money.  Rossello denied benefiting from the 
diversion and any guilt in the criminal matter.  Vice President Al Gore in 
March named Rossello to his inner circle of advisors for his presidential 
quest in 2000.
 
 	"We need to interview people with AIDS who suffered because 
politicians were 
 greedy," said Turner.  "The AIDS scandal in San Juan isn't an isolated 
problem with one AIDS service organization.  It's emblematic of a larger 
concern over the all American AIDS groups operate, often with sizable federal 
subsidies."
 
 	Jose F. Colon is demanding a full audit be performed on Puerto Rico's 
federally 
 subsidized AIDS programs for the past decade.  "My group, AIDS Patients for 
Sane 
 Policies, requires a comprehensive audit by the General Accounting Office 
before moral trust is restored to our political and health leaders in the 
fight against AIDS," said Colon.
 
 	ACT UP Turner's trip is cosponsored by the AIDS Accountability 
Project, a web 
 site devoted to IRS 990 tax forms for AIDS groups.  Reporters are encouraged 
to visit www.accountabilityproject.com and www.actupdc.org on the web for 
background data.
 
                                                       -30-