Breast-feeding threats to Ecuador denied

A U.S. diplomat involved in an effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to prevent the introduction of a breast-feeding resolution at a global health conference this spring denied making threats to Ecuador, the country that initially sponsored the resolution.

In an interview with The New York Times, Todd Chapman, the U.S. ambassador to Ecuador, said the allegations reported by the newspaper last month, including that he threatened Ecuadorean officials with trade sanctions and the withdrawal of some military assistance, were “patently false and inaccurate.”

The article, based on interviews with three Ecuadorean officials who declined to be named for fear of losing their jobs, said that Chapman had made such threats in an effort to get the country to drop the resolution. Before the article’s publication, the U.S. Embassy in Quito declined two requests from The Times to make Chapman available for an interview.

Chapman said he was asked by the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency leading the negotiations at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, to meet with officials in Ecuador to raise the agency’s concerns about the timing and substance of the resolution. He said there was no mention of trade sanctions or military assistance during meetings with Ecuadorean officials.

“I did not issue threats to the government of Ecuador,” Chapman said.

Ecuador eventually withdrew the resolution, a nonbinding document that emphasized the need to promote breast-feeding and end “inappropriate marketing of foods for infants and young children” that might detract from breast-feeding. Russia later introduced a similar measure, and it was approved in a slightly altered form that was supported by the United States.