Venezuela

Nilsa Hernandez, 62, used to work as an informal greengrocer in Venezuela to help increase her family income and provide for her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. As a person living with HIV for 16 years, Nilsa had managed to reduce her viral load to undetectable until everything changed suddenly when the political-economic crisis took hold in Venezuela. Health services were severely affected and people living with HIV gradually lost access to regular care, treatment and medication.

"I went about two years without access to treatment. My body started to feel the consequences and I realized that I needed to do something urgently. It was a live or die situation, and I decided to live!", remembers Nilsa.

Nilsa crossed the border and emigrated to Brazil, where HIV treatment is available to everyone through the public health system. It took her a year to prepare for the journey. In 2018, she arrived in Roraima, the Brazilian state bordering Venezuela, with her partner, who also lived with HIV, and her 12-year-old grandson.

They ended up in the streets after suffering all kinds of discrimination and violence. Thanks to the support of people she met, she finally managed to rent a small house in the outskirts of Rio Branco, the capital of Roraima, and resume her HIV treatment. As soon as she recovered immunity, she had no doubt: it was time to become an activist and create Valientes por la Vida (Brave for Life), a voluntary initiative to support other Venezuelans living with HIV who, like her, arrived in Brazil with scarce resources and little information.

"We are brave because it takes a lot of courage to leave your country, often with only the things we had to hand, in search of treatment and in search of life."

Today, as a humanitarian activist, Nilsa has mobilized a network of other Valientes who joined her to spread the word about the arrival of new Venezuelan migrants in search of HIV treatment.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected this process, especially when the borders between Brazil and Venezuela were closed in March 2020. “The closure made it very difficult for my compatriots to access HIV treatment that could save their lives. With the reopening of the border, we are now putting these services back on track."

According to the 2020 Annual Report on Epidemiology issued by the state of Roraima’s medical authority, in the years 2018 and 2019, a combined total of 1,137 cases of HIV/AIDS were reported in the state. Among the foreign population, migrants from Venezuela represent the most significant number of the combined HIV/AIDS cases for the same period: 383 people.

Just like Nilsa, many of the Venezuelan people living with HIV migrate to Brazil in search of access to HIV treatment that they are no longer able to have in many parts of the country. In this context, UNAIDS established a partnership with UNESCO in December 2020 in a joint, collaborative and intersectoral strategy to grant Venezuelan migrants access to health education, prevention, and health promotion, and to support the responses of Roraima to HIV and COVID-19.

Claudia Velasquez, UNAIDS Representative and Country Director in Brazil, explains that the proposal is to reduce prejudice, stigma and discrimination related to migrants and refugees, and more vulnerable populations, such as sex workers and LGBTQIA+ population, youth and indigenous peoples.

"We want to promote the empowerment of vulnerable populations through the dissemination of information about HIV and the rights of people living with HIV”, says Ms. Velasquez. “Nilsa Hernandez is an example of a humanitarian activist. And people like her, who are Brave for Life, show the enormous impact that civil society's mobilization has on supporting and welcoming people living with HIV and on the efforts to face stigma and discrimination, which enhance the inequalities that prevent us from ending the AIDS pandemic by 2030."

For the future, Nilsa's dream is for Valientes por la Vida to become an international organization, with volunteers dedicated to supporting people living with HIV to have access to treatment and a healthy life. "I also want people to stop seeing us as HIV positive. This creates a horrible stigma that weighs on us all. We are not HIV positive. We are brave and impatient because we are in a hurry to live like everyone else."

GENEVA, 29 January 2021—UNAIDS is deeply troubled and concerned about the detention by military police of the Venezuelan citizens and humanitarian workers Johán León Reyes, Yordy Bermúdez, Layners Gutiérrez Díaz, Alejandro Gómez Di Maggio and Luis Ferrebuz, who are members of the nongovernmental organization Azul Positivo. The five have been held since 12 January 2021.

“I call on the Venezuelan authorities to release from police custody the five humanitarians working for the nongovernmental organization Azul Positivo, and to return essential equipment seized at the time of their arrest,” said Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director. “A strong and empowered civil society plays a central role in providing much-needed services to the most vulnerable people and is critical to making progress against the HIV pandemic and other health threats in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

Azul Positivo was established in 2004 to work on the prevention of HIV in the state of Zulia, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. UNAIDS has supported Azul Positivo’s work for many years and has witnessed the positive impact of their contributions to the community.

UNAIDS is strongly supportive of the full empowerment and engagement of civil society organizations in the AIDS response and in humanitarian work. It looks forward to continuing its partnership with community and civil society organizations in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as well as with government officials, in ensuring that all people affected by HIV have access to HIV prevention, treatment and social support services and that their human rights are protected.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Raiza Farnataro lives in the bustling city of Barquisimeto, in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, about five hours away from Caracas. Having lived with HIV for 18 years, she used to access treatment through the public health-care system. However, as the economic situation in the country worsened, medicine became scarce and she began fearing for her life. After two years without treatment, she travelled to the Colombian border, where she could either buy overpriced medicines from pharmacies or access donated medicines from nongovernmental organizations.

Ms Farnataro is just one among an estimated 62 000 people living with HIV in the country who started treatment but lack consistent access to antiretroviral medicines, according to the Venezuelan Network of Positive People. The fallout has been severe. Hospitalization rates among people living with HIV have soared and there are an estimated 20 to 30 AIDS-related deaths every day. By September 2018, an estimated 7700 Venezuelans living with HIV had joined the migrants streaming into neighbouring countries.

“The current humanitarian crisis is leading to a drastic and alarming regression of the national AIDS response that is comparable to, and even worse than, what was experienced at the beginning of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s,” said HIV activist Alberto Nieves of Citizens Action against AIDS (ACCSI). “Deaths, progressive deterioration of health, hunger, denial of access to health-care services and HIV treatment, discrimination, mass migration and xenophobia are the main implications of this crisis for all people with HIV in the country.”

In 2017, UNAIDS-commissioned research by ACCSI generated the first concrete evidence of shortages of antiretroviral medicines, other medicines and HIV reagents.

HIV prevention has also been undermined. Experts are concerned that irregular treatment access could fuel drug resistance in both the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and neighbouring countries. Only about a quarter of pregnant women are being screened for HIV and syphilis. Because of food shortages, some mothers living with HIV are opting to breastfeed.

Over the past two years, UNAIDS has coordinated with the Venezuelan Ministry of Health, civil society, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and other United Nations entities and development partners to improve treatment access for adults and children living with HIV in the country, as well as people on the move. UNAIDS joined with civil society and PAHO to support the advocacy that resulted in a Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria US$ 5 million allocation to the HIV component of a plan to coordinate support to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in the country. 

UNAIDS, in partnership with Aid for AIDS International, received more than 60 tonnes of antiretroviral medicines, which were distributed to people through state-run dispensing centres. UNAIDS has also coordinated the donation and distribution of testing kits and breast-milk substitutes.

“Thanks to the support of UNAIDS, the Venezuela Network of Positive People and other strategic partners we managed to ensure that treatment was received and distributed in the country in 2018. Our efforts helped to reduce the impact of the crisis, assuring treatment to a significant percentage of people with HIV,” explained Aid for AIDS Executive Director Jesús Aguais. “Otherwise,” he added, “the tragedy would have been greater.”

This action has saved lives. Over the past six months Ms Farnataro has received her antiretroviral medicines through the public health system, thanks to the donation from Aid for AIDS International.

As a member of the Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela, UNAIDS also advocates for the rights and treatment access needs of migrants living with HIV. Priorities include the establishment of a civil society observatory to monitor access to health services and discrimination, distribution of communication materials around prevention, treatment and care and advocacy to address discrimination and xenophobia.

Amid all this, UNAIDS insists on the need to continue strengthening the country’s HIV response. “We need ongoing work with diverse national and international actors for the welfare of all Venezuelans, and to guarantee the health and quality of life of all people living with HIV in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” said the UNAIDS Country Director, Regina Lopez de Khalek. “We are working so that the country is not left behind in the global effort to end AIDS.”

UNAIDS has appointed CNN news anchor Alejandra Oraa as a UNAIDS Regional Goodwill Ambassador for Latin America and the Caribbean. The announcement was made on the occasion of World Health Day 2016.

In her new role, Ms Oraa will work towards promoting an integral approach to HIV based on human rights, as part of the health agenda for women and youth, and will raise public awareness and understanding of gender inequality.

During the coming year, Ms Oraa will visit several countries in the region, where she will have the opportunity to hear about best practices and lessons learned from the HIV response, especially with regard to women and girls.

Alejandra Oraa, born in Vargas, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is anchor of Café CNN, a morning news programme on CNN in Spanish broadcast from Atlanta, United States of America, and Destinos CNN, a weekly TV programme on the world’s most popular tourist destinations. 

Homophobia is posing a critical challenge to
moving the AIDS response forward.

Widespread homophobia is posing a critical challenge to the AIDS response in many countries around the world. The International Day Against Homophobia (May 17) shines a spotlight on the urgent need for joint efforts to reduce and end discrimination, violence and criminalization based on sexual orientation.

Men who have sex with men, women who have sex with women and transgender people are all too often faced with stigma, discrimination and violence. These malevolent acts are contributing to the spread of HIV by creating an environment of isolation and exclusion which is preventing people from seeking vital HIV-related information and health services.

Today, around 85 member states of the United Nations consider homosexuality a criminal act and a small number of these countries carry the death penalty. The criminalization of homosexuality instigates widespread fear and shame, forcing people to hide their sexuality, often living in traditional partnerships and practicing in secret for fear of prosecution. Where people cannot live openly and disclose their sexuality the risk of HIV infection is often greatly enhanced as people are too afraid to access HIV prevention services for fear of repercussions or, as is the case in many countries, those services simply don’t exist.

For UNAIDS, the decriminalization of homosexuality and the eradication of violence against sexual minorities has been underlined as fundamental for progress within the AIDS response. At an international consultation on male sexual health held in New Delhi, India in September 2006, UNAIDS’ Director of Policy, Evidence and Partnerships, Purnima Mane stressed, "We have to ensure that homosexuality is decriminalized everywhere, and that homophobia, discrimination and violence against sexual minorities and women are made illegal and socially unacceptable,” she said.

However, progress is being seen, a number of governments are now advocating for the rights of homosexuals, in compliance with numerous international standards such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Charter of the United Nations.

Since Brazil first presented the draft resolution to the United Nation’s Commission on Human Rights in 2003, advocating against any kind of discrimination based on the ground of sexual orientation or gender identity, over 50 countries have publicly supported this agreement. But still more needs to be done.

“We have to face homophobia in bold and innovative ways. We all know that as long as a society is homophobic there is no way that there can be an effective AIDS response for men who have sex with men [and other sexual minorities]," said Purnima Mane.

Venezuela celebrates ‘A Day Against Homophobia’

Each year, HIV awareness raising activities take place around the world on the International Day Against Homophobia. In Venezuela, UNAIDS is taking part in one such activity by promoting the "Guide on human rights, health and HIV: a strategic guide to prevent and fight discrimination due to sexual orientation or gender identity". This document was prepared by the International Centre for Technical Cooperation on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS and the Horizontal Group of Technical Cooperation and was recently launched at the IV Latin American and Caribbean Forum on HIV/AIDS held in Buenos Aires.

Venezuela ’s "Day Against Homophobia" celebrations will take place in Merida, a western Andean city that hosts one of the most active and solid Venezuelan civil society networks, the “Merida League Against HIV and AIDS”.

As well as the distribution of the guide, UNAIDS and the Merida League will hold an interactive workshop that will cover basic concepts on sexuality, sexual human rights, and vulnerability to HIV.

“This is the second year in a row that Venezuela celebrates the International Day against Homophobia with activities that raise awareness on this important issue.  In accordance with regional initiatives, the launching of this guide, particularly among youth, will promote respect and tolerance towards the gay, lesbian and transsexual community,” said UNAIDS Country Coordinator Venezuela Libsen Rodríguez-Adrian.

Links:

Read Press Release ( en | sp )

Guide on human rights, health and HIV: strategic guide to prevent and fight discrimination due to sexual orientation or gender identity ( sp )

Read the State of Homophobia, ( en | sp ) published by the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), or visit their website at http://www.ilga.org/

Watch ILGA's video "A Day Against Homophobia" (mpeg, 3,840kb)

Read the Yogyakarta Principles ( en )

Read the International human rights references to human rights violations on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity