Brazil has rejected Bush's AIDS-relief money because it came with strings attached: a requirement to condemn prostitution, rather than working with sex-workers to promote safe sex. The Bush AIDS money comes with requirements to block abortion, birth control and sex-ed in favor of abstinence programs. Developing countries can't afford the luxury of hypocritical "faith based" HIV/AIDS prevention (e.g., if you believe hard enough, prostitutes will stop plying their trade), but Brazil is the first country with the guts to stand up to America's extraterritorial bullying. This is gutsy as hell — bravo, Brazil!
Yesterday Pedro Chequer, the director of Brazil's HIV/Aids programme, said the government had managed to resist US pressure during negotiations on the Aids funding to focus on promoting abstinence and fidelity rather than condoms – another ideological battle being waged by the religious right. But the US negotiators insisted that the clause on prostitution had to stay.
"I would like to confirm that Brazil has taken this decision in order to preserve its autonomy on issues related to national policies on HIV/Aids as well as ethical and human rights principles," he told the Guardian.
