21-23 November 2009, Lima - The FORO 2009 was officially launched by the Minister of Health of Peru, Dr Oscar Raúl Ugarte Ubilluz together with the Minister of Labour, Jorge Elisban Villasante Aranibar, Director of Health Services of Peru, Dr Edward Cruz Sánchez, UNAIDS Regional Director for Latin America, César Antonio Núñez, Mrs. Guiselly Flores Arroyo, representing the Latin American network of people living with HIV, and Dr Jose Luis Sebastian Mesones, Technical Secretariat of the Horizontal Technical Cooperation Group and National AIDS Coordinator from Peru.
The team of UNODC who was present at the forum (staff from Latin America and from HQ) presented the UNODC HIV/AIDS Unit activities at the V Latin American conference on HIV and AIDS. These conferences are taking place every two years and give people the chance to discuss and highlight HIV related issues in that region. About 4000 people attended the conference. UN organizations, Government representatives, NGOs, scientists and networks were present, gave lectures and displayed their material.