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By Víctor Hugo Robles, from Santiago 

Miguel Ángel—whose identity we are protecting—is a lawyer, HIV-positive, and an actor in “permanent training,” as he introduces himself in this first media interview since his name surfaced in June in the print and television press—without his authorization— following a ruling by the Chilean Supreme Court. After five years and homophobic rulings in the first instance, the courts finally granted him redress for the negligence of the El Salvador Hospital and the Metropolitan East Health Service (SSMO), which lost his initial HIV test. Ángel lived for three years unaware of his HIV status and came very close to death.

The Court overturned the rulings of the 14th Civil Court of Santiago as well as that of the Court of Appeals, where the plaintiff's claims were dismissed and it was said that it was the fault of "his aberrant lifestyle", referring to his homosexuality.

[READ ALSO: Da Morgue: the Peruvian artist who decided to dress up HIV]

Today she is seeking humanitarian asylum in Spain, where she lived for a time, and recounts her struggle for the first time. It is a story of discrimination, lack of services, and violations of various laws and constitutional guarantees in a Chile experiencing its most serious HIV/AIDS and STI crisis since the return of democracy.

– We met via email when I was attending the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, while you were working in Spain. We finally met here in Chile, on September 11, 2018. Tell us a little about yourself, your childhood, your background, your origins in Chile.

My childhood was peaceful and filled with love. I feel privileged because there was so much love in my home and family. I was raised by my grandmother and my mother. I attended small schools, always in groups where I felt protected. But in my youth, I began to question my sexuality. My paternal grandmother owned brothels in Talca, and that's where I saw sex workers and transvestites for the first time. Those images brought me closer to discovering my own homosexuality. At that time, sex was taboo in Talca; "small town, big hell," as they say. I remember finishing school, going home, and then having half an hour. They were quickies. I had sex with people I knew, frequented the same places, and we recognized each other. The first time I slept in a bed was when I had a serious relationship, at 23. That's when I discovered another facet of sexuality: intimacy and love.

[READ ALSO: HIV/AIDS in Chile: Between the worst figures in the region and the media circus]

– The first death from AIDS in Chile was in August 1984. What information did you have? 

“I knew about HIV/AIDS. I don’t know why, but ever since I learned about HIV, I thought it could happen to me, and I saw it as a kind of fatal destiny, a path I had to walk. I didn’t seek it out, but it came. It appeared when I was in a stable relationship. It was with my second partner, the person I was most in love with. I thought our relationship was stable, and that’s why we didn’t use condoms. When I got sick and had severe symptoms like spots and diarrhea for months, I returned to Talca to my mother’s house. Without telling me, she started preparing, taking a course to care for terminally ill patients. I remember one day I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize myself; I didn’t understand how everything could happen so fast. It was as if I were a different person. I was emaciated. From the first symptoms, I started looking for information. When I started noticing spots, I talked to my partner, and everything got complicated. I felt very little support. He told me he loved me, but only if I was healthy, even though he was living with HIV, and I didn’t know that officially.”

– Did he not know or did he not want to admit it?

That information has always been a mystery to me. I think he knew it and denied it. Later, to make his story coherent, after I forgave him for what had happened between us, we met and he told me he was living with HIV but that the transmission was recent. I didn't believe him; he was probably living with HIV before he met me.

The notification three years later

– Do you remember the day you went to take your first exam? What was that day like?

It was after several months that I began to experience the first symptoms, which started in March 2007, and I took the test on October 1, 2007. During those months, symptoms accumulated: weight loss, diarrhea, dizziness, and blisters under my arms. I had the test done at El Salvador Hospital, and they were supposed to give me the results in a week. The service was adequate, but impersonal. They gave me basic pre-test counseling and told me the results would be ready in a week. They didn't call me, so I asked again. I had a feeling, a hunch, that the result was positive. I went back to ask, and they told me not to worry, so I felt reassured.

How was your health?

"Not very well. I had spotting and diarrhea. I thought it was irritable bowel syndrome. Once the test came back negative, I wasn't worried anymore. In 2009, I started to experience a more significant decline. I lost a lot of weight that year, and I got scared. In April 2010, I had another test done at the NGO RED OSS in Conchalí. The rapid HIV test there came back positive, and they took another sample. I thought there might have been a mistake, but when I returned the following week, they told me it was positive, that a second sample wasn't required because a test I had taken in 2007 had also come back positive."

“When they found out at my job, I was fired.”

What happened to you? What did you feel and do?

I asked many questions, not only regarding HIV/AIDS, but also of an administrative and legal nature. I immediately realized there was a lack of service and confirmed this with the professionals at RED OSS, who told me that El Salvador Hospital had made a mistake. From that moment on, I began taking administrative action. In the midst of all this, my health deteriorated, and I submitted a medical leave of absence from my job at the Ministry of Education. I remember that as soon as I mentioned my situation to the head of Human Resources at that branch of the Chilean government, she leaked it to her superiors: I was dismissed.

– Is that where your fight for truth and justice began regarding what was happening to you?

– Exactly. There had been so many instances of abuse and discrimination. My mother was the first to tell me we had to file a lawsuit. I immediately recognized the legal recourse and started gathering information. I sought legal representation. We initially found a lawyer who scammed us, but in the end, I was defended by the renowned human rights lawyer Nelson Caucoto. We decided to file a lawsuit for negligence against El Salvador Hospital (HDS) and the Metropolitan East Health Service (SSMO) for failing to notify me of the positive result of an HIV test I had taken in 2007, which I only learned about in April 2010. HDS arbitrarily denied me access to my medical records, forcing me to file a legal action with the Transparency Tribunal, an injunction, which I won after months of litigation. They were forced to release the information, and the supposed notification of the HIV test was nowhere to be found in that file. They even presented a falsified, handwritten document, attempting to make it appear that I had been notified along with other people.

The demand

– Who was your lawsuit directed against?

– I thought it was El Salvador Hospital, but ultimately the Metropolitan East Health Service was found liable due to an administrative issue. I never imagined this case would go this far, but when El Salvador Hospital informed me that they had lost a file containing 20 positive notifications, including mine, I felt I had to do something. During the lawsuit, the Service offered me compensation amounts and then withdrew them, perhaps to wear me down.

– What were you legally claiming?

The lawsuit alleged negligence, a crime defined by law, referring to administrative acts by the State that are either not performed or performed incompletely. Ultimately, but with homophobic undertones, I obtained a ruling in the first instance, this time from the 14th Civil Court of Santiago. This same court made the ruling public through the Judicial Branch's Administrative Corporation, violating the regulations governing the handling of sensitive data and anti-discrimination laws. The ruling then became part of electronic jurisprudential repositories that are primarily sold to lawyers. The court stated that everything was my responsibility due to an "aberrant lifestyle." We appealed to the Court of Appeals, which overturned the homophobic undertones but ruled that I was not entitled to compensation.

– Did they seek an appeal in another higher court?

– That's right, we filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. In a replacement ruling issued by the Supreme Court on June 18, 2018, compensation was awarded in my favor, but they published my personal data again (full name, profession, age, and city of residence, thus identifying me) in violation of the relevant regulations, even though the first time they did this I formally complained and they responded positively in the same manner. This time, the information was not only shared in jurisdictional repositories, but also in 22 media outlets, both national and international.

– There have already been too many mistakes, shortcomings, and acts of negligence…

“We never presented it as a public case” 

– Did you talk to the lawyer about the media impact of the case?

– No, never. We didn't discuss it, and we never imagined the case would be broadcast on television, including my personal information. We never envisioned it as a public matter. I found out about the ruling while I was in Spain because some friends wrote to me from Chile, telling me what had happened and what the press was saying. It's a serious matter because we're talking about sensitive, personal information. Nobody asked me if they could publish my case, including my name, and I think it's another way of punishing you. Likewise, I believe there were ethical breaches and irresponsibility on the part of the media itself.

– Why did you decide to migrate to Spain?

– I left for several reasons. I couldn't find stable work in Chile for a long time, considering I'd never hesitated to do any job; in fact, in recent years I did everything I could to survive. I was also tired of barely scraping by, and a friend who lives in Spain offered me a job. I had nothing to lose, so I emigrated, and now I'm requesting humanitarian asylum, given the constant violations of my rights by the Chilean state.

– Do you have any hope of obtaining humanitarian asylum?

Yes. The case is clear because I was discriminated against several times, but we must demonstrate that my safety is at risk, which I feel is the case, given the constant and repeated violations by the Chilean state administration. Homophobia is part of our culture, especially in a small town like Talca. I filed for asylum on July 20, 2018, and I am now awaiting my first hearing, which will take place soon. I am currently waiting for my presentation and gathering relevant materials and information to present in Bilbao, a beautiful and tolerant city where my case is being heard and where I hope to live a more peaceful life, free from discrimination and arbitrary abuses by the Chilean state.