"SHULTZ PROTESTS ANTI-CIA MURAL IN ECUADOR BUT ATTENDS INAUGURAL"

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89G01321R000500010004-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 29, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: August 11, 1988
• Content Type: MISC

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29 :CIA-RDP89G013218000500010004-3
Office of Current Production and Analytic Support
CIA Operations Center
News Bulletirl~-ashington Times
Page A7
11 August 1988
Item no. 1
Shultz protests anti-CIA mural
in Ecuador but attends inaugural
By Richard Beeston
THE VW+SHINGTON TIMES
QUITO, Ecuador -Secretary of
State George P. Shultz, atte*:ding
yesterday's inauguration of Rodrigo
Borja as president, angrily pro-
tested agiant mural in Ecuador's
congress portraying the CIA as a
death's head in a German helmet.
But, Mr. Shultz said, just as "an
attack by bombs on me" Monday in
Bolivia had not changed his sched-
ule, the insulting mural would not
prevent his attending the inaugura-
rion.
Mr. Borja took office as president,
replacing Leon Febres Cordero. Re-
lations are so bad between the two
that Mr. Febres refused to hand him
the presidential sash. Instead he left
it with the president of congress to
be picked up by Mr. Borja.
Though Mr. Borja's politics are
far to the left of Mr. Febres; U.S._
officials said they hope to maintain
good relations with Ecuador.
The first official contact was not
promising.
Mr. Shultz told Mr. Borja that the
430-square-yard mural behind the
speaker's podium, and the presence
in Quito of Cuba's president Fidel
Castro and scheduled arrival of
Nicaraugan President Daniel Or-
tega sent the American people the
wrong message.
After meeting with Mr. Borja, he
declared that the mural was "a mes-
sage of insult to the United States"
It represents the United States as
a Darth Vader-looking skull wearing
a German helmet inscribed with the
letters CIA.
Mr. Shultz said the mural's second
message was about "the desirability
of the progress of the far left:'
"As to the insult to the United
States, I don't appreciate it. But just
as an attack by bombs on me in Bo-
livia earlier on this trip didn't deter
my schedule at all, though some-
thing very different, ...perhaps de-
signed to cause me not to go to this
inauguration and join in celebrating
democracy -well, that won't work,
either. And I'll go"
State Department spokesman
Charles Redman said Mr. Borja told
Mr. Shultz "he hoped the incident
would not cast a shadow on our rela-
tions."
Mr. Borja told Mr. Shultz he had
no doubt the United States strongly
supports democracy and said he
wanted to strengthen relations and
economic ties with Washington.
Mr. Shultz delivered to Mr. Borja
a letter of congratulations from
President Reagan.
The controversial mural was com-
missioned by congress at the initia-
tive of a member of the Democratic
Left Party. The artist is Osvaldo
Guayasamin, one of Ecuador's best-
known.
"I believe in freedom of speech;'
Mr. Shultz said. "The painter is enti-
tled to his freedom of speech and so
am I. But I think the facts are on my
side"
As to the second part of the mes-
sage in the mural, Mr. Shultz said
that the leftist methods of running
an economy by central control "sim-
ply doesn't work." He said the most
recent example of this was in Nica-
ragua.
Though Mr. Shultz might not have
been deterred by the Bolivian
bomber, security was changed to
prevent a recurrence in Ecuador. In
a last minute decision he was flown
by a U.S. military helicopter from
Quito airport to a football field near
the U.S. Embassy, obviating the six-
mile drive.
U.S. reporters traveling aboard a
U.S. Air Force plane to report on Mr.
Shultz' 10-day Latin American tour
were warned that, if the need for an
evacuation arises, they risked being
left behind if they strayed far from
the press center.
In Quito, Mr. Shultz, who has been
the celebrity in visits to eight coun-
tries in the past eight days, shared
the limelight with Mr. Castro who
arrived a day earlier.
But Mr. Shultz did not meet with
Mr. Castro.
The head of Nicaragua's Marxist
government, Mr. Ortega, arrives in
Ecuador today after having been
barred from yesterday's ceremonies
by Mr. Febres. Mr. Febres broke re-
lationswith Nicaragua after Mr. Or-
tega called him a tool of the United
States. .
Mr. Borja is expected soon to re-
establish diplomatic relations with
Nicaragua.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29 :CIA-RDP89G013218000500010004-3
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29 :CIA-RDP89G013218000500010004-3
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29 :CIA-RDP89G013218000500010004-3