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INSIDECOSTARICA.COM
| SPECIAL REPORTS
| Tuesday 12
October 2010 |
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Guatemala
to
Investigate
Human
Experimentation
by U.S.
Doctors
By
Danilo
Valladares
GUATEMALA
(IPS) -
A
high-level
commission
has been
set up
to look
into
appalling
medical
experiments
carried
out by
U.S.
researchers
on
hundreds
of
Guatemalans
in the
1940s,
and the
government
of this
Central
American
country
is
debating
alternative
ways for
the
United
States
to make
reparations.
"These
acts
should
be
condemned
and the
case
brought
to
trial,"
Amílcar
Pop, an
indigenous
Guatemalan
lawyer,
told IPS.
"We need
to
repudiate
what
happened
and
condemn
the
attitudes
that
made it
possible.
Humanity
has
evolved
and
these
actions
cannot
be
tolerated
under
any
circumstances.
What the
United
States
did was
a crime
against
humanity."
In an
Oct. 1
statement,
the U.S.
government
acknowledged
that
between
1946 and
1948,
U.S.
medical
researchers
deliberately
infected
at least
696
Guatemalans
with
sexually
transmitted
infections
(STI)
without
information
or
consent,
and
formally
apologized.
U.S.
President
Barack
Obama
also
personally
apologized
to
Guatemalan
President
Álvaro
Colom in
a
telephone
conversation,
and
promised
an
"exhaustive
investigation"
into the
matter.
The news
triggered
a public
outcry,
with
indignant
Guatemalans
rejecting
the U.S.
government's
apologies
as
insufficient,
and
demanding
justice.
The
Guatemalan
investigating
commission
is made
up of
Vice
President
Rafael
Espada
and
representatives
of the
ministries
of
health,
interior,
defence
and
foreign
relations,
as well
as
members
of the
Guatemalan
College
of
Physicians
and
Surgeons.
Pop said
the work
of the
commission
will be
of prime
importance
in
seeking
legal
and
moral
condemnation
of those
responsible
for the
experimentation.
Researcher
Susan
Reverby
of
Wellesley
College
in the
state of
Massachusetts
revealed
that
U.S.
medical
doctor
John
Cutler
carried
out
human
experiments
in
Guatemala,
mainly
among
soldiers,
prison
inmates
and
mental
patients,
whom he
infected
with
syphilis,
gonorrhoea
and
other
STIs,
purportedly
to test
the
effectiveness
of
penicillin.
Paradoxically,
at the
so-called
"Nazi
Doctors'
Trials"
in
Nuremberg,
Germany
in 1945
and
1946,
the
United
States
tried,
convicted
and
sentenced
a score
of Nazi
doctors
for
performing
macabre
experiments
on
thousands
of Jews
during
World
War II.
The aim
of
Cutler's
research,
which
had the
approval
of the
U.S.
Public
Health
Service
during
the
administration
of
President
Harry
Truman
(1945-1953),
was to
develop
preventive
treatments
and
improve
diagnostic
tests
for STIs.
But
according
to
Reverby,
it never
produced
any
useful
information.
Around
one
third of
those
who were
infected
never
received
adequate
treatment.
In fact,
a recent
report
on the
case by
the U.S.
Department
of
Health
and
Human
Resources
concluded
that 71
people
died
after
being
infected
with
syphilis,
although
no
causal
relationship
is
inferred
in the
report.
Pop said
the
quest
for
reparations
and
economic
support
"is the
typical
attitude
taken by
poor
countries,
although
the
collective
dignity
of our
people
should
go
further
than
that.
However,
there is
no
reason
for
bilateral
relations
between
the
United
States
and
Guatemala
to be
affected."
Others
believe
that
reparations
are of
the
utmost
importance
to the
country.
Víctor
Manuel
Gutiérrez,
chair of
the
parliamentary
Commission
on
Health
and
Social
Assistance,
told IPS
the
United
States
could
help the
country
by
granting
Temporary
Protected
Status (TPS)
to
thousands
of
Guatemalans
who are
living
in the
U.S.
illegally.
"The
United
States
should
make a
goodwill
gesture
of some
kind,
and
provide
reparations
or some
other
benefit
for
Guatemalans
who work
in that
country.
It would
be a
good
option
for them
and for
our
country,"
he said.
Congressman
Gutiérrez
announced
that he
would
ask the
Guatemalan
government
to allow
members
of the
commission
he
chairs
to join
the
commission
investigating
the
experiments,
because
"this
was an
invasion
of our
national
dignity."
For the
investigation,
President
Colom
has
asked
the
United
States
for all
the
documents
related
to the
case.
"We have
officially
requested
all the
information,
but it
is still
being
held by
the
university
where
the
records
were
discovered,"
Colom
said
Oct. 6,
calling
the
experiments
"a crime
against
humanity."
Carlos
Mejía,
head of
the
Guatemalan
College
of
Physicians
and a
member
of the
investigating
commission,
said the
experiments
were
similar
to those
perpetrated
by the
Nazis
during
WWII.
The
information
available
in
Guatemala
and the
United
States
about
Cutler's
research
with
human
subjects
will be
analysed
to
determine
what was
done,
and by
whom.
Meanwhile,
the
office
of the
Human
Rights
Ombudsman
paid for
a
national
press
advertisement
Oct. 6,
calling
on
survivors
of the
experiments,
or their
relatives,
to come
to the
office
for
legal
support
to
initiate
claims
for
reparations.
Former
foreign
minister
Gabriel
Orellana
told IPS
that
before
legal
action
is taken
against
the U.S.
government
and
reparations
are
demanded,
the role
of the
Guatemalan
authorities
at the
time
should
be
clarified.
The
president
of the
country
during
the
period
in
question
was Juan
José
Arévalo
Bermejo
(1945-1951).
"We are
assuming
that
what
took
place
was an
abuse,
but we
do not
know
whether
it had
the
blessing
of the
Guatemalan
government,"
Orellana
said.
"Suppose
the
Guatemalan
government
gave its
consent
for the
procedures,
what
legitimacy
would
any
claim of
ours
have?"
he said.
Orellana,
a
lawyer,
found it
"suspect"
that
neither
the
office
of the
Human
Rights
Ombudsman
nor the
Attorney
General's
Office
are
represented
on the
investigating
commission,
"which
detracts
from the
combativeness
with
which
the
cause
can be
pressed,"
he
concluded.
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Source
Apdo. 2133-1000, San José, Costa
Rica
Tel: (506) 2231 3205 / (506) 8399
9642
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