Following last week’s article in the Gay & Lesbian Times regarding the closing and bankruptcy of the Bi-National AIDS Advocacy Project (PROCABI) in San Diego, new information surfaced concerning the continued operation of its affiliate in Tijuana. The Gay & Lesbian Times had attempted but was unable to reach Tijuana board members for comment prior to the publication of last week’s article, but recently met with PROCABI, A.C. in Tijuana.

Robin Slade, founder and administrator of PROCABI San Diego, stated that the Tijuana organization had disbanded and was no longer operational. He also claimed HIV/AIDS services in Tijuana would operate under the name of AFABI, A.C. (Bi-National Family Agency) and was not staffed by those who managed PROCABI in Tijuana.

According to Juan Olmeda Perez, PROCABI Tijuana board president, PROCABI Tijuana has not disbanded and is still in operation with the same staff, but had moved their offices in December 2004 to another location, becoming a program within AFABI, along with Corredor Bilateral (Bilateral Corridor for Human Rights). The new structure is a coalition of HIV and AIDS services in Tijuana.

Rosana Scolari, PROCABI Tijuana board member and director of HIV services for the San Ysidro Health Center, explained AFABI is the primary organization and has partnered with Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Global Immunity, to create a clinic for HIV services.

Scolari explained PROCABI Tijuana will now provide various support and social groups to patients and to the general public, while AFABI will handle research and scientific studies, psychological counseling, community outreach, HIV education and workshops.

The board members of PROCABI Tijuana were surprised that Slade said they were no longer operational and did not accurately report on money transferred to them from PROCABI San Diego.

In a memo written to the Gay & Lesbian Times, Slade stated $62,673 from the State of California Office of AIDS was wired to the Tijuana affiliate, plus in-kind donations of condoms and prevention materials, plus food from Saint Vincent de Paul food bank and others, was given for a women’s study over a two-year period. Slade said as of the present time he has not received detailed financial reports on how these funds were spent by the Tijuana affiliate.

According to Olmeda Perez, the funds were received via wire transfer and all invoices associated with the women’s study were submitted to Slade, and were also copied to the State of California Office of AIDS. Olmeda Perez presented a binder to the Gay & Lesbian Times, which included all invoices associated with the women’s study. In order to pay the costs for the study in Tijuana, Olmeda Perez explained it was required to send the invoices to PROCABI in San Diego since they acted as Tijuana’s fiscal agent.

Slade agreed invoices were sent to him with costs related to units in the study, but they did not have any specific financial breakdown.

“They gave us no financial reports. Any money that goes through our books, we are required to have that break down,” Slade said.

Olmeda Perez claims they only need to report to the Mexican government the specific financial details of how money is spent within their organization.

Richard Kerman, a San Diego attorney who spoke to the Gay & Lesbian Times on the matter, said any organization in San Diego would have to comply with California government compliance requirements, so the question remains as to whether the organization would have sufficient information if audited. Slade also stated in the memo that the Tijuana office has an outstanding loan from 2002 of $4,710 owed to the San Diego office plus a calculated interest payment of $942.

Scolari explained the origination of most of the $4,710 debt was the result of an action Slade took in 2002 when he abruptly terminated three employees.

Scolari said they had an intention of paying off this debt but could not since they had external debt to settle in order to continue to operate and provide services. Those debts needed to be paid first and it was priority to keep PROBABI in Tijuana operational.

“The immediate firing was not the appropriate response. He came over and fired employees and there were consequences to that,” said Scolari. “Here is Mexico you can’t just fire someone, so the consequences of his actions made for these debts.”

Slade denies abruptly terminating these employees and said Tijuana board members signed a note allowing the termination to occur.

Scolari said any documents that were signed were related to the litigation involved with the wrongful termination suit. She said the employees were terminated without a just cause, so they had a legal right to sue.

According to Scolari and Olmeda Perez, at that point in time the Tijuana office had accumulated a debt of $16,800 so they had no funds to pay the ex-employees and legal fees, forcing them to borrow money from PROCABI in San Diego.

Olmeda Perez and Scolari both hope they can now move on from these tensions and focus on developing HIV and AIDS prevention services for the Tijuana community under the new structure.