Clinton se disculpa con Guatemala por infección de sífilis en los años 40- Nicole Veitch

The article I read was called “Clinton se disculpa con Guatemala por infección de sífilis en los años 40”, it was published in La Prensa Libre on Oct.1.

Summary:
This article is about the public apology Hilary Clinton (the US Secretary of State) made of behalf of the United States government for experiments using Guatemalan citizens on the long term effects of syphilis and gonorrhoea without treatment. According to the article the study was done by the US public Health Service under the administration of Harry S. Truman. The Guatemalan government under Juan José Arévalo Bermejo (1945-1951) was aware of the experiments which entailed intentionally infecting Guatemalans with these diseases (from 1946 to 1948 followed by long term observations. The study was trying to determine if penicillin could prevent, not only cure a syphilis infection.

The practices were uncovered by a study at University of Wellesley (in Massachusetts). According to the study, there are 696 people, many of them patients in mental institutions. The statement made by Clinton said: “Lamentamos profundamente que esto haya sucedido y ofrecemos nuestras disculpas a todas las personas que resultaron afectadas por esas abominables prácticas de investigación", apologizing to those effected and calling the research practices “abominable”. As a result of this coming to light the US government has commissioned a full investigation into the experiments.

Comments:

I found one quote from the US government statement "El estudio es un triste recordatorio de que las garantías adecuadas para la investigación en seres humanos no existían hace medio siglo", afirma el comunicado. (“The study is a sad reminder that adequate safeguards for human research did not exist half a century ago") particularly interesting. Although this was part of an official apology that element seemed to be a shirking of responsibility. I also found it interesting that as of now there’s no indication as to whether after the research was concluded the people involved received treatment or any aid. The article claims that “a muchos de ellos se les alentó a que contagiaran a otras personas” which I think means that many participants were encourage to infect other people. Whether or not they were encouraged the infection of almost 700 people no doubt lead to a huge spread of this disease and I hope that the research that will be undertaken by the US government will address modern ways to support the direct and indirect victims of this research. Also noticed in the comments on the article a trend of anti-American sentiment, with phrases like ‘gringo bastards’ and I would am curious as to whether this is a wide spread feeling or more a result of these particular findings.