Outrage in Guatemala over US study on sex diseases

[UpInArms]

Source: AFP

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalans on Saturday slammed a US confession that it led a 1940s study in the Central American country in which hundreds of people were deliberately infected with sexually transmitted diseases.

"No matter how much of a superpower it is, the United States cannot do this kind of experimentation," Nery Rodenas, the chief of the human rights office at the archbishop of Guatemala's office, told reporters.

"They used Guatemalans as lab rats. It is important that family members receive some kind of compensation."

<snip>

The study, which was never published, came to light this year after Wellesley College professor Susan Reverby stumbled upon archived documents outlining the 1940s experiment led by controversial US public health doctor John Cutler.

<snip>

Cutler, was also involved in a highly controversial study known as the Tuskegee Experiment in which hundreds of African American men with late-stage syphilis were observed but given no treatment for 40 years, between 1932 and 1972.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gAoJpKYIvbI-WJ64M39u9ZGoXo1A?docId=CNG.269d5b4d24611193b334b94159602133.12b1

[boppers]

1. Poorly written article.

There's much better coverage elsewhere.

This, for example:
http://www.wellesley.edu/WomenSt/Reverby%20Normal%20Exposure.pdf

[kenny blankenship]

2. I think we can safely change Dr. Cutler's reputation from "controversial" to "infamous"

I'm not sure why AFP's editors would stick with such bland modifiers in a case like this. Dr. Cutler can be merely "controversial" in the homes of his descendants; in the rest of the world he deserves to be infamous.

[GaYellowDawg]

17. I think we can change the SOB's last name to "Mengele."

nfm

[snappyturtle]

3. The Guatemalans are outraged and I am more than disappointed

and embarrassed. Cutler was some kind of creep.

The U.S. has done so many dastardly acts and the world is waking up....we should be ashamed...I am, anyway.

[ChazII]

4. You are not

alone in your feelings. I am also ashamed of what was done to the Guatemalans.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kringle]

5. gimme gimme gimme ,nt

[Enrique]

14. wtf?

wtf is "gimme gimme gimme" supposed to mean?

[struggle4progress]

6. And then the CIA under Eisenhower overthrew Guatemala's elected government. So Guatemala

got 40 years of civil war, during which the US supported the rightwing antidemocratic forces and their death squads, who killed thousands upon thousands in the Reagan era alone

If the US had a corporate motto, it would be something like "The hell with all the little brown people"

[stormpilot]

10. No doubt about that motto you say

From the moment Eisenhower took office, he was a sure "winner" with the very first coup the US ever staged in Iran ousting Mossadegh (Truman his predecessor refused to aid and abet Churchill)during their most critical time of burgeoning democracy. From there Eisenhower never looked back, and continued with "to hell with all the little brown people, take their resources and prop up those who WE approve."
Please watch my vid (not on Guatamela but have one in the works hopefully soon)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPJlgZHyVP8

[Xipe Totec]

16. Welcome to DU!

Very good, strong, early contribution to DU.

We need more members like you!

:applause:

[No Elephants]

15. Bingo! Beige, brown and black folk are fair game to animals like Cutler.

"red" and "yellow" as well.

"Take up the white man's burden," my ass.

SHAMEFUL!

[rabs]

7. In addition to the Nazi-style experiments, there needs to be an "I'm sorry"

-- For the CIA-orchestrated coup that drove democratically (and leftist) President Jacobo Arbenz into exile in 1954.

--For the United Fruit-sponsored assassination of President Carlos Castillo a year later.

-- For sending 5,000 anti-Castro Cubans to Guatemala to train for the Bay of Pigs.

--For sending U.S. Special Forces troops to train Guatemalans soldiers, and which led to massacres, torture, disappearances and a scorched-earth policy that displaced hundreds of thousands of Maya and campesinos.

--For the deaths of almost 250,000 people at the hands of the U.S.-trained military and the Death Squads that ravaged Maya and campesino villages.

---------------

But doubt there will be any "I'm sorry" for the above.

Related: Guatemalans are calling for the revelation of the VD-experiments to be used as a bargaining chip for the Obama government to grant tens of thousands of Guatemaltecos living in the United States TPS (Temporary Protected Status).

[stormpilot]

9. Truth be told

This has got to be the tip of the iceberg of atrocities yet to come to light with regards to Latin America. Much of it known already. But few choose to believe. The U.S. has been a very bad superpower.

[Joe Chi Minh]

11. I believe at that time, the leadership of the CIA were Nazis. I mean in the proper sense.

[earcandle]

12. We need to pull out of the war, crime and disease industries if we want to serve public interests

and bring quality of life issues back to the table.  

They do not deserve all of the wealth they earn by killing,
incarcerating, and diseasing us!  

[TheMadMonk]

13. No IT IS NOT IMPORTANT that families be compensated.

What is both important and unfortunately impossible, is that the USA get it's arse kicked from one end of the Universe to the other, for presuming its own superiority over any others'.

[StandingInLeftField]

18. Something we can do.

http://www.soaw.org/