An Empty Box, Hint of ‘96, Other Symbols Mark Quayle’s Latin Trail : Politics: Support for South America’s democratic movements has been the key message of his 7th foreign journey.

Life on the road for Vice President Dan Quayle these days is full of symbols--appropriately so in a job that is perhaps more symbolic than any other at the top of an American Administration. But the symbols aren’t always those he would want.

Take, for instance, the smartly wrapped box he was handed on an earlier stop in Buenos Aires after a hastily arranged tour of the frigate Libertad, a prize-winning sailing ship tied up in the harbor.

“The box is going to be empty because we haven’t had time to fill it with the respect a vice president is entitled to,” the skipper told Quayle, pledging a real gift when the ship visits Baltimore next summer.

Thus, on a day when attention was riveted elsewhere--this was Tuesday, the day when Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev won vastly increased powers for the presidency and the Israeli government crumbled--the vice president of the United States was at the far end of the South American continent, accepting the gift of an empty box with the promise that eventually it would be filled.

Symbols and promises--coming in a tango of sorts that took him one step forward, two steps to the side and one step backward as he traversed South America this week from Venezuela to Chile, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil--are what the vice president’s travels are all about.

To be sure, beyond the symbolism of this latest venture, his seventh foreign trip, there has been a substantive message to be conveyed: U.S. support for democratic movements throughout South America.

But this vice president, more so than any of his recent predecessors, has a more personal agenda. It is one that he and his aides have discussed in private conversations with some of the more astute political advisers in Washington: the long-term rehabilitation of the image of Dan Quayle, which was severely battered in the 1988 presidential campaign.

“What Quayle needs to do is to be perceived as somebody who is a substantive player, along with the President and the top White House staff,” said one occasional Quayle adviser. “He needs to be seen as a heavyweight player. That’s not something you get overnight.”

Perhaps not. But Quayle’s aides couldn’t have been more pleased at the end of a diplomatic tango of sorts that Quayle performed with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in Chile, where they attended ceremonies celebrating the end of 16 1/2 years of military rule.

The Nicaraguan assured the American of his readiness to turn over the reins of government to his elected opposition next month.

Credit the vice president with one step forward by announcing what appeared to be the taming of the Nicaraguan tiger.

In Paraguay on Tuesday morning, Quayle planted a Canary Island date palm in the back yard of the U.S. ambassador’s home in Asuncion. For three decades, Paraguay had been pretty much off-limits to senior U.S. officials reluctant to have any dealings with its dictator, Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, who was overthrown by a military coup d’etat in February, 1989.

“It’s 32 years since they planted another tree in the back yard, which I just did. I was 11 then. I remember reading it in the Weekly Reader, how Vice President Nixon planted a tree here, and I always wanted to do that,” Quayle said.

That South American trip by Nixon “showed him off as a spokesman for America and enhanced his stature,” said a former GOP official and political strategist, suggesting that a mix of symbolism, substance and upbeat public attention is just what Quayle needs.

What Quayle did not need was the minor embarrassment served up when Paraguayan President Andres Rodriguez, ignoring signals from the vice president’s staff, presented him with two cuddly jaguar cubs, Chaco and Paloma.

The jaguar is listed as an endangered species, and humane organizations have sought to discourage Americans from bringing them into the United States.

To avoid a diplomatic incident, Quayle and his wife, Marilyn, dutifully ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the five-month-old jaguars. But three days later, Assistant Secretary of State Bernard Aronson was dispatched to tell a Rodriguez aide that the animals just could not be brought home.

Tree-planting. Jaguar cubs. Symbolism. Gifts. Two steps sideways. The tango continues.

This is where an Indian doll enters the picture--to the feigned horror of Quayle’s wife and to his staff’s real dismay.

Stopping at a souvenir stand in Valparaiso, Chile, Quayle picked up a lasciviously grinning statuette. It was made in two parts, and when the vice president lifted the head and upper torso, the wooden carving--a fertility symbol of sorts--opened up, leaving no doubt as to its gender. As art, it was worthy of an X-rating.

“Dan, you’re not getting that, “ Mrs. Quayle said, offering a more innocent copper flower pot.

But he did, and as a sales clerk wrapped up the purchase, she said playfully to her husband, “You’re so sick.”

One step backward, as the vice president once again gave late-night comedians new material.

A political tango of sorts was played out aboard Air Force Two while the vice president flew to Chile last Saturday, accompanied by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a member of the official U.S. delegation to the inauguration there of President Patricio Aylwin. Kennedy, like the crew of the Argentine sailing ship, had a gift for the vice president. This offering, however, was not empty.

It was a red, white and blue New England Patriots football jersey bearing the name “Quayle” and the number 96.

Quayle asked the senator to autograph the shirt. Kennedy obliged, and added the inscription: “Does ’96 have a ring to it?”

But Quayle faces many tests before that presidential election year, not the least of which is erasing the negative ratings he continues to receive in public opinion polls--36% of those surveyed in the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll said they viewed him “very negatively or somewhat negatively.”