U.S. admits to controversial study in Guatemala

U.S. officials apologized Friday for a study from 60 years ago that deliberately infected hundreds of people with sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala.

The apology was prompted after a Wellesley College historian discovered the archived documents. The documents outlined the experiments that tested whether penicillin could prevent infection with sexually transmitted diseases, the Associated Press said.

At least 1,500 people participated in the study.

"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 the Agence France-Presse.