Following a 3 hour meeting between the government and leaders of various indigenous groups last night, the head of the United Nations office in Ecuador read out the following statement:

"As a result of the dialogue, a new decree is established that leaves Decree 883 without effect [ed. this decree had imposed belt tightening measures that had led to the strikes and marches]. To this end, a commission will be installed to prepare a new decree, made up of the indigenous movement organizations, participants in this dialogue and the national government, through mediation by the United Nations and the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference and with the oversight of other government agencies. This agreement ends the mobilizations and de facto measures throughout Ecuador. And we jointly commit ourselves to restoring peace in the country."

CNH Tours expects that this result should lead to the demobilization of the large number of protesters who have been blocking roads throughought the mainland and that things should return to normal very quickly.  There is still work to be done as the negotiating parties have agreed to form a joint commission to come up with an alternative to decree 883, which had, among other things, eliminated fuel subsidies. 

Given that Ecuador faces a crushing debt, and that the International Monetary Fund's conditions for its loan of $4.1B were the imposition of of budgetary constraint measures, it remains to be seen how the government will be able to meet the demands of its people and those of the IMF at the same time.   

But for now, there is breathing room and an opportunity to come up with solutions in a participatory manner.   

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR CNH TOURS GUESTS TRAVELLING TO ECUADOR IN THE NEXT FORTNIGHT?

This is excellent news of course.  We do not anticipate any further problems at this point.  Guests traveling in the coming days and weeks should assume that it will be business as usual.  If, for any reason, we feel that there may be some remaining concerns to be addressed, CNH Tours will get in touch with you on an individual basis.   

We have quite a few guests traveling in the coming weeks and we wish to thank them all for their patience and understanding while the events in Ecuador played themselves out.  We always welcome your emails and calls, but we were surprised by how few of you reached out. 

We had one couple who, despite all the disturbing news, understood that the risk to themselves was minimal and bravely flew to Ecuador yesterday.  While they were in mid-flight to Miamii, we learned that Quito airport had been closed due to the imposition of a curfew in Quito.  On arrival in Miami, upon learning that their connecting flight to Quito had been cancelled, our guests had to decide on the spot if they would either cancel their trip altogether, or take an alternative flight to the coastal city of Guyaquil.   They valiantly opted to carry on, and we were able to make alternative arrangements for a hotel and for their domestic flight to Galapagos at the last minute.  Bravo!