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At the principal regional gathering of Latin American and Caribbean representatives of national AIDS programs and nongovernmental activist organizations, the AIDS Responsibility Project honored the leadership of Dr. Jorge Saavedra, director of the National Center for the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS in Mexico (CENSIDA), and spotlighted the lead that Mexico has taken on a number of key fronts in the fight against stigma and discrimination against people with HIV.

The ARP-Futures Group event, held in San Salvador on the closing day of the CONCASIDA conference, featured remarks by U.S. Ambassador H. Douglas Barclay, who praised the advances being made in Latin America on HIV/AIDS.

Adolfo Franco, USAID Assistant Administrator for Latin American and the Caribbean, emphasized the bold leadership that Dr. Saavedra and the Ministry of Health of Mexico have shown in the fight against stigma and homophobia in Mexico, and the critical contribution this makes to the fight against AIDS.

Dr. Saavedra accepted the ARP Leadership Award and said he shared it with Health Secretary Julio Frenk, all the staff of CENSIDA and the governments civil society partners. He stressed that their efforts in Mexico against stigma and homophobia "are a fundamental part of public policy in this area, because discrimination based on sexual orientation denies people their full potential in work, education and in society, in many cases leading to physical violence and the violation of rights."

He also said that an important result of Mexicos efforts are that the mass media in his country are more widely covering HIV/AIDS discrimination and homophobia. He said that "not to speak of this problem only makes it appear invisible."

Franco also praised the partnership between CENSIDA, ARP and the Futures Group in Mexico which developed and launched the National Business Council on HIV/AIDS (CONAES), now a catalyst for private sector and business leadership in the fight against discrimination.

"Sometimes, workplace policies do not exist where they are needed, and for that reason CONAES has been created," Franco said, "so that every day more companies are rolling back discriminatory actions against those who live with HIV/AIDS or for reasons on race, ethnicity or sexual orientation."

Among the guests at the event were U.S. government officials along with representatives of national AIDS programs and NGOs from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru. Also in attendance was Marisela Padron, the director for Latin America and the Caribbean for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).