During 1940s, the US medical authorities used Guatemalan citizens as unwitting human guinea pigs to study the effects of penicillin as a treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Searching for methods of curing US troops stationed across the world, doctors from both the US and Guatemala carried out tests on 5,500 Guatemalans, including 1,300 prisoners, psychiatric patients, and sex workers.

These 1,300 people were deliberately infected with sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis and gonorrhoea, via injections in their eyes, central nervous systems, and male genitalia. Only 700 received any kind of treatment, and at least 83 of the 5,500 involved in testing had died by 1953, though it is not certain whether the deaths were a direct result of these tests.

Though the recent US report refers to 1,300 Guatemalans infected without their knowledge, the President of the Medical Association of Guatemala believes that the number could be as high as 2,500.

This experiment was not the only incident in which US authorities were involved in controversial medical tests as it ran concurrently with the notorious “Tuskegee syphilis experiment” on deprived African-American sharecroppers in Alabama. Though the subjects in Tuskegee were not deliberately infected with syphilis, they were purposely denied treatment for the illness, resulting in 128 of the 339 men dying of syphilis or related complications.
 
With comparisons being made to similar tests carried out by the Nazi regime, in a country that prides itself on its morals, how can Americans face up to the realities of their recent past? With eight of the nine Guatemalan doctors involved in the tests dead and one missing, who should be held culpable for these monstrosities? As there is evidence to suggest that the Guatemalan authorities collaborated in the tests should the current government take responsibility for their predecessors’ actions?