U.S. BIBLE GROUP LEAVING ECUADOREAN INDIANS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201050004-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: May 16, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201050004-9
ARTICLE APPE-ARED
ON PAGE c'' "j
NEW YORK TIMES
16 MAY 1982
U. S. Bible Group Leaving Ecuadorean Indians
QUITO, Ecuador, May 15 (AP) -The
Bible-translating missionaries of the
Summer Institute of Linguistics, who
for 30 years have worked with the In-
dians in the mountains and jungles of
Ecuador, are preparing to leave by May
29 on orders of the Government.
The Government decision, made a
year institute's a national debate over
and the future of the
indigenous people the 50 missionaries
will leave behind.
In question is whether Ecuador can
work with': isolated Indian groups -
some living in extremely -, primitive
conditions - or whether, as a newspa-
per columnist suggested, their cultures
will the and their languages will be ! forced sterilization.
"sounds lost forever among the jungle's
vegetable mass and river torrents."
"It looks like we're leaving for sure,"
William Eddy, the institute's public
relations officer in Ecuador, said in a
recent interview.
Extension Is Denied
The institute has denied all these
charges.
The Ecuadorean Government said a
major reason for breaking its contract
with the institute was to stop the debate.
"The Government position is clear,"
Vladimir Serrano Perez, Under Secre.
tary of Government, said. "Ecuador is
sufficiently mature to. handle the cul-
tural problems which exist in the coun-
try and to resolve them In an efficient
manner."
He said an anthropological institute
would be set up with support from the
Catholic University of Ecuador and the-
United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural. Organization to take over.
the missionaries' operations. ,
n
he Gave
th
aaaaacut Insist,
ere Cur-
tears work in Latin America.
- ' trained personnel prepared to take over
One of its workers, Chester Allen Bit i
li
i
ti
more than 3,900-volunteers working
around the ? world. About 1,000 volu
-
He added that the Protestant-run in-
stitute had unsuccessfully appealed for
an extension. Until 1N5 to complete its
mission In -Ecuador, a: predominantly
Roman Catholic country.
The institute is the overseas arm of
the United Statesbased Wycliffe Bible
Translators, the world's largest Protes-
tant missionary organization. It has
terman 3d of Lancaster, Pa., was kid-
napped in Colombia in January 1981 by
dissident members of the M-19 guerrilla
movement, who charged, that the insti-
tute was a front for the United States
Central Intelligence Agency. The dissi-
dents demanded that the institute leave
Colombia, and when it refused, Mr. Bit
ine msutute?s contact in rrcuaaor, ?--r-- - - - -- .,.~ -w? ? ????
like its contracts in other countries, of Ecuadorean society that they are not
lets , aware that their fate is of national co
it investigate aboriginal languages in r art _.
_cem
ngu
s
c program, Mr. Ed said
"But they are not out there It looks like
it will be abandoned."
His opinion is.shared by most newspa=
pers in the country, which generally
have expressed regret that the institute
is leaving.
Indian organizations are divided on
the issue. Many of the most primitive
social workers and human-rights advo-
cates-maintain that it wittingly or un-
wittingly serves the interests of the
United States. especially by. opening the
jungles to oil companies by serving as
intermediarieswith hostile Indians.
More extreme charges, such as those
made by the M-19 dissidents in Colour-
bin, are that the missionaries are C.I.A.
.agents. smugglers and advocates of en-
I--- lur limping trovernment-ap.
proved health, bilingual education and
agricultural projects. l .. ;
Its primary purpose -- introducing
primitive people to Christianity - has
come under fire in recent years by.
some anthropologists who say it threat-
ens .traditional religious and cultural
values.
Other opponents of the institute-- in..
Latin American leftist groups,
The 50 missionaries in Ecuador in4
chide 22 linguists assigned to eight has-
guage groups, the Cayapa, Coffin, Colo.
redo, Huaorani (Aura), Slruar (Jivaro)
Secoya, Siona and Quechua,,,'_-,.,
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201050004-9