Demarche Delivered: U.S. Candidate for the Civil Service

C O N F I D E N T I A L QUITO 000913 SIPDIS IO/MPR - BRIAN G. HACKETT AND USUN/MR - BRUCE RASHKOW E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/10/29 TAGS: PREL UNGA KUNR EC SUBJECT: Demarche Delivered: U.S. Candidate for the Civil Service Commission CLASSIFIED BY: Heather Hodges, Ambassador, State, Exec; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (C) Poloff delivered reftel demarche to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Director General for Multilateral Policy and International Organizations Lourdes Puma on October 29th. DG Puma said that while all four proposed candidates were excellent, and Ecuador generally agreed with U.S. policy in the Civil Service Commission, the Government of Ecuador was not prepared to reveal its vote at this time. She told Poloff that Ecuador was engaged in vote-trading with some of the other candidates' host governments to gain seats on ECOSOC and the Human Rights Commission. She also said that Myers was an excellent candidate who already had the respect of the Commission and that Ecuador did not have any objection to her candidacy. DG Puma said she understood that the United States and the United Kingdom did not engage in vote-trading as a matter of policy, but that Ecuador did, and it was currently the higher priority for her government in this particular election. HODGES