Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 13:55:17 -0700 (PDT) From: Rex Wockner Subject: WOCKNER/TIJUANA HUNGER STRIKER ALLEGES AIDS MONEY DIVERTED Tijuana Hunger Striker Alleges AIDS Funds Diverted AIDS Walk Money Allegedly Involved by Rex Wockner TIJUANA -- The only worker at Tijuana's AIDS hospice says the founder of the facility, gay leader Emilio Velasquez, has never paid him and has diverted donations, including those from AIDS Walk San Diego, to personal use. Velasquez denies the charges, saying the money can be accounted for and that the worker was a volunteer. Hospice Director Armando Maya launched a hunger-strike at the facility Sept. 18, demanding Velasquez pay him and that independent auditors find out what became of a 75,000 peso ($10,040) grant from the Baja California state government, as well as $6,500 from AIDS Walk San Diego and the proceeds of fundraisers held in Tijuana. Maya charges Velasquez used the money to, among other things, pay the rent on his long-struggling cafe, Emilio's Cafeteria Musical, located on Third Street near Ninos Heroes Avenue. Velasquez acknowledges he briefly used some hospice money for that purpose but says he later made up for it with purchases for the hospice. The San Rafael hospice, located in Tijuana's Colonia Morita, almost half way down the highway to Tecate, has been home to over 50 persons with AIDS since it opened two years ago. The building itself was provided by the government. Maya, whose friends describe him as very religious, says he has scrounged around himself to provide for the PWAs needs. But Velasquez claims that 90 percent of donated money went into a bank account for which Maya had the only ATM card and that Maya withdrew funds as needed to run the facility. Velasquez says he kept 10 percent to pay his overhead in securing grants and donations. "It takes money to raise money," he said. "Armando handled all the rest of the money," Velasquez said. "He spent the money, he gave me the receipts, we accounted for it to the Baja government. Last year's election caused that program [that gave us the money] to disappear and we don't have anyone to report to now. But we did comply with two-thirds of the reporting [until the program disappeared]." Velasquez offered to try to track down the official to whom the reports had been made. Maya says that when he went public with his complaints, Velasquez told him he was about to be replaced anyway and that he should leave the hospice building. But Velasquez says he wanted to get rid of Maya because Maya had a hand in a recent mess that led to the closing of the AIDS clinic at the Tijuana health department. (Another AIDS clinic, gay-run and free, remains open in Tijuana.) But Maya remains at the hospice, consuming only water, he says. Velasquez is skeptical of this as well, saying Maya does not appear to have suffered any loss of weight or energy. "I'll leave when they pay me what they owe me and promise not to abscond with that which is for the hospice, or I will die [here of hunger]," Maya said. Maya's salary was supposed to be 500 pesos a week, about $70 -- totalling $7,280 for the past two years, he says. His allegations have generated several stories in Baja's daily newspapers. Velasquez is one of Tijuana's best-known gay activists. In addition to his cafe, he publishes the newspaper Frontera Gay, which also has financial troubles, and heads up AIDS Organization Tijuana (OST) and the gay group FIGHT, a Spanish acronym for International Front for Human Rights Guarantees in Tijuana. AIDS Organization Tijuana is also closely linked with COMUSIDA, the Municipal AIDS Committee. Some observers say the two essentially operate as one entity. COMUSIDA ran the recently closed city AIDS clinic and staffs an AIDS information office in a downtown plaza. There is no relation -- and indeed no communication whatsoever -- between Velasquez' projects and Tijuana's other cadre of gay and AIDS activists, led by Alejandro Garcia and Jose Navarro. They operate AIDS Project Tijuana, the ACOSIDA AIDS clinic (the only place in Mexico to obtain free AIDS drugs) and the gay organization Grupo ?Y Que?, which, among much else, stages the annual gay-pride parade. (The free drugs are brought from San Diego County, snagged by sympathetic healthcare personnel from the bedsides of people who have died.) The Gay & Lesbian Times will publish a follow-up story if Maya or Velasquez produces documents to back up their statements. -end- GRUPO Y QUE? REQUIRES AN UPSIDE DOWN QUESTION MARK BEFORE THE Y. QUE TAKES AN ACCENT ON THE E. VELASQUEZ TAKES AN ACCENT ON THE A. JOSE TAKES AN ACCENT ON THE E. GARCIA TAKES AN ACCENT ON THE I. NINOS TAKES A TILDE (~) ON THE N.