The Foreign Service Journal, June 2020

38 JUNE 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL “It was a massive operation,” says second-tour FSO Scott Risner, who was manning the phones from his home in Quito and working with his colleagues in Guayaquil to figure out who needed help. “There are more than 100,000 American citizens living in Ecuador. We had to quickly collect data and build an information infrastructure to identify which people wanted to leave, and then get them accurate information.” As of March 15, Ecuador, with a population of some 17 million, had confirmed 37 positive cases of COVID-19 and two deaths. But as elsewhere the virus spread rapidly, particularly in the coastal city of Guayaquil, whose first recorded case was traced to a traveler who returned from Spain. In a matter of days, Guayaquil would lead the nation with 70 percent of coronavirus cases. For Americans wanting to leave Ecuador, what compli- cated matters was that, as in many countries, commercial airlines stopped flying. So mission staff had to figure out how many potential American passengers there were, then contact airlines and convince them there was enough demand to send an aircraft. Once a flight was confirmed, the mission shot out MASCOT [Message Alert System for Citizens Overseas Tool] messages to registrants of the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) and social media posts urging Americans to book their tickets. In short, it was pretty complicated. “We were working with airlines to charter planes, we organized humanitarian flights, we set up a processing center at the airport—and then realized that many Americans, while scared, were not necessarily ready to go home,” says Delorey. As media coverage of the virus in the United States painted an increasingly grim picture at home, stranded Americans in Ecuador wrestled with what to do. To connect people with flights, consular and public affairs teams worked around the clock through social media and also set up a 24-hour phone line run by 40 staff in Guayaquil and Quito. “The public affairs team even started posting information on a Facebook group, Americans Stranded in Ecuador, which had hundreds of followers,” says Risner. “There were so many rumors out there. We were fighting to give accurate informa- tion so people could have faith that these charter flights were even real.” A Letter Unblocks a Road As curfews tightened, travel by road became nearly impos- sible, causing an outcry from American citizens in cities across the country. Guayaquil’s Consular Chief Gabriel Kaypaghian recounted how creative thinking and teamwork helped get peo- As curfews tightened, travel by road became nearly impossible, causing an outcry from American citizens in cities across the country. U.S. Consulate Guayaquil personnel assist American citizens at José Joaquin de Olmedo International Airport. U.S.MISSIONECUADOR U.S.MISSIONECUADOR