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the Communicable Disease Center, and the functions of the VDRL were transferred to Atlanta, Georgia. 
Etheridge, E.W. (1992). Sentinel for Health: A History of the Centers for Disease Control. Berkeley, 
California: University of California Press, pp. 88-89. The Communicable Disease Center was renamed 
the Center for Disease Control in 1970 and was renamed again in 1992 as the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention, while maintaining the acronym CDC. CDC Office of the Associate Director for 
Communication. (2011, July 7). Available at http://www.cdc.gov/about/history/timeline.htm (accessed 
August 30, 2011). The U.S. Public Health Service’s venereal disease control and laboratory activities now 
operate as part of CDC’s Division of STD Prevention within the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral 
Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. 
14 The Commission requested information when it visited Guatemala April 30 to May 3, 2011, and again 
after Guatemalan media reported that the government of Guatemala had identified living victims of the 
research. A regulation passed in Guatemala on May 1, 2011 precluded release of all records relating to 
the Guatemalan government’s investigation prior to release of its final investigation report. Guatemala 
government Resolution Number 131-2011. Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues 
Human Subjects Protections I (PCSBI HSPI) Archives, MISC 0000638. While unable to obtain specific 
records, Commission staff met with the Directors of the three Guatemalan Archives, Ana Carla Ericastilla 
(Central American Archives), Marco Tulio Alvarez (Peace Archives), and Gustavo Meono Brenner 
(Police Archives). They confirmed to the Commission staff that numerous records had been found in Gua- 
temala substantiating the information from the Cutler Documents and also providing additional evidence 
surrounding the conduct of the experiments. The Guatemalan media has also reported that the govern- 
ment of Guatemala possesses records from the national hospital, the former Department of Public Health, 
and the psychiatric hospital. Villasenor, C.M. (2010, November 25). Archivo General de CA resguardara 
expediente de experimentos de EE. UU. Prensa Libre. (2010, November 11). Archivos de hospital mental 
no se destruyeron en 1960. Prensa Libre. 
15 The Commission identified only one living person with first-hand knowledge of the events, though her 
recollection is limited and she was able to offer no specifics. The documents indicate that Mrs. John C. 
(Eliese S.) Cutler lived and worked with Dr. Cutler in Guatemala from 1946 into 1948. Commission staff 
contacted Mrs. Cutler, but she declined to speak with the staff. She did, however, send a letter to the 
Commission, writing: “I have no recollection of any such medical testing other than that conducted in the 
mental institution.” Personal communication, Eliese S. Cutler to Valerie Bonham. (2011, June 25). PCSBI 
HSPI Archives, MISC_0000523. 
16 Meeting, February 1 1 , 201 1 . Vice President Espada was invited to speak at two Commission meetings 
held during the investigation, but regrettably for both parties, unanticipated events prevented him from 
traveling. 
17 While unable to obtain specific records during its trip, the Commission was later aided by the work of an 
independent researcher in Guatemala, Mr. Martin Rangel, who provided relevant contemporaneous reports 
from Guatemalan media. 
18 Beginning in 1924, PASB was the principal coordinating entity of international health activities in the 
Americas. During the time period of the STD studies in Guatemala, the PASB was closely linked with 
the U.S. PHS. In 1946, the PHS assigned “practically all of the professional staff of the Bureau.” In 
1947 and 1948, the PHS paid for the salaries of the PASB Assistant Director, the Chiefs of the Lima and 
Guatemala Zone Offices as well as officers and personnel assigned to special projects of the PHS. The 
two organizations shared the same leader, the U.S. Surgeon General, until 1936. (Hugh S. Cumming Sr., 
assumed the position of PASB Director when he took office as U.S. Surgeon General in 1920. In 1936, he 
retired as Surgeon General but remained PASB Director until 1947.) Fred L. Soper, (n.d.). Report of the 
Director of the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau to the Member Governments of the Pan American Sanitary 
Organization: January 1947-April 1950, p. 30. PCSBI HSPI Archives, PAHO_0000486. In 1949, the 
PASB became the Regional Office of the Americas of the World Health Organization, an arm of the Pan 
American Sanitary Organization, which is today known as the Pan American Health Organization. Cueto, 
M. (2007). The Value of Health: A History of the Pan American Health Organization. Washington, DC: 
Pan American Health Organization, pp. 63-108. 
19 RG-65, awarded July 1946; RG-65(C), awarded July 1947, and extended to December 1948. Funding 
through 1953 was provided by PHS to several Guatemalan researchers. See, e.g., Juan M. Funes Personnel 
Files. (1948, December 10). PCSBI HSPI Archives, NPRC_0000807. 
161 
