Subject: OPEN LETTER TO PETER PIOT
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 09:45:46 -0600 (CST)

An Open Letter to Peter Piot:

3 May, 1998

Dr. Peter Piot 
Director
UNAIDS
Geneva
Fax #4122-791-4187

Dear Dr. Piot.

This letter is to protest the fact that Guillermo Murillo of Costa Rica has
apparently not been selected to receive a scholarship  to go to the XII
International AIDS Conference in Geneva.  

We understand that there are more deserving individuals than scholarships
spaces available, but we also  know that Guillermo has been one of the few
individuals here in  Central America who has been critical of yourself  and
UNAIDS for the lack of an effective program in our region.  We hope that the
fact  that Guillermo was not selected for a scholarship was not an attempt
to censor him or our region.

Several other Costa Rican recipients who received scholarship awards were
notified  around April 3rd of receiving their award, but Guillermo and
several others have  received no communication whatsoever at this point
about their applications.   We don't pretend to know who is in the
scholarship committee or on what basis awards are made, but  Guillermo lives
at home and has an income  of less than $200 monthly, so he cannot afford to
go to Geneva on his own.

Guillermo's  accomplishments are many:

1)  He is the first  person Living with AIDS to come out publicly in  Costa
Rica, and for that matter in all of Central America.  He has appeared in
numerous magazine and newspaper articles here and has been on television
here and in Nicaragua.  He publicly came out  in April of 1997.

2) He is President of the Costarican Association for People with Living with
AIDS. (ASOVIH/SIDA), elected late in 1997.

3)  He has been selected by POZ magazine to be in their International "Hall
of Fame," this announcement to appear in the next edition of POZ.

4)  He organized a group of patients that signed an appeal to the  Costa
Rican Supreme Court, which has resulted in  more than 300 people with AIDS
in Costa Rica receiving the triple therapy cocktail. The Supreme Court's
decision was made in September of 1997.

5)  He has written numerous articles for People Living with AIDS about such
as issues as empowerment, advocacy, and rights to adequate medical treatment.

6) As President of ASOVIH/SIDA, he  helped to organize the first national
weekend workshop of People Living with AIDS in Central  America which was
held January 18 and 19 of 1998 and  attended by more than 50 persons,
included ten women, and representatives from Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama.

7)  He has recently traveled to Nicaragua (March, 1998) and Guatemala
(February, 1998) to meet with People Living with AIDS and encourage and
support them in the process of forming effective advocacy groups to seek
better medical attention and struggle against human rights abuses that they
face.

8)  He has co-authored a series of faxes sent to you (March/April, 1998) and
Louis Loures (UNAIDS team leader for Central America)   which criticized the
inadequate response of UNAIDS in our Central American region, and offered
alternative solutions.

Guillermo is an activist in the truest sense of the word and we feel that he
should be in Geneva helping to represent our Central American region and we
hope that you will consider this request very seriously.

If one of the purposes of the XII World Conference is to facilitate a
dialogue and exchange of information between regional leaders, than it seems
self-evident that Guillermo should be present.

Guillermo can be reached by phone at 506-433-8522 or by fax at 506-258-0635.

Association Triangulo Rosa
Apartado 1619-4050
Alajuela, Costa Rica
506-258-0214
e-mail: [email-masked]
               [email-masked]