Guatemala Reveals Magnitude of US Experiments

Guatemala, Aug 31. -New information about illegal medical experiments of a U.S. team with Guatemalans in the 1940s reveals the magnitude of that act of genocide.A report of the investigating commission, released in Washington on Monday, disclosed that 83 Guatemalan citizens died of about 5, 500 used as guinea pigs from 1946 to 1948 by American scientists.

Prisoners, mentally handicapped and prostitutes were among some 1,300 who were inoculated with gonorrhea and syphilis, in order to verify the effects of penicillin on these sexually transmitted diseases.

The exposure of these experiments caused deep shock in Guatemala when it was released in November, when President Alvaro Colom criticized them emphatically, to the point of qualifying them as an act of genocide against his people.

According to Vice President Rafael Espada, who heads the investigation by the Guatemalan state, they have located five people who were inoculated with these diseases.

U.S. scientists at the University of Pennsylvania are working on these cases to document the findings, after which the report will be delivered to President Barack Obama, according to a Guatemalan official. (Prensa Latina)