Subjected to Humanitarianism: Malnutrition Studies in Guatemala during the 1960s and 1970s

In 2010, the revelation of the U.S. Public Health Service’s 1940s experiments with sexually transmitted infections spurred an international outcry. U.S. and Guatemalan doctors on the public payroll infected Guatemalans with syphilis, gonorrhea, and chancroid without receiving informed consent. Nor did they provide their so-called “patients” with available treatments. Further investigations have shown that studies in the 1960s and 1970s also funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and carried out by the Institute of Nutrition for Central American and Panama (INCAP) used Guatemalan mothers and infants as disposable resources for the advancement of medical knowledge. This research benefitted a U.S. national security agenda to quell the spread of communism in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. I will argue that Guatemalans were collateral damage in building humanitarian efforts in poor, rural, and indigenous communities around the globe.

Today, the UN World Food Programme reports that Guatemala has the highest chronic undernutrition rate in Latin America and the fourth highest in the world. A former director of INCAP acknowledges that the institute did not directly benefit Guatemalans who were the subjects of these studies. Still, this research aided the development of food products that have been crucial in combating malnutrition. Some researchers were actively involved with guerrilla organizations challenging anti-communist military efforts, and others criticized INCAP’s studies as unethical. Drawing on oral history interviews, medical reports, and NIH and USAID documents, I will highlight the sometimes contradictory meanings of what constituted “humanitarianism” from diverse actors, including medical researchers, anthropologists, and Guatemalans who served as the foci of these projects. While analyzing the contingencies that led individuals to participate in this research, this paper will argue that these studies positioned Guatemala as a laboratory for the development of U.S.-led humanitarian efforts in low-income countries around the globe.