After hundreds of Ecuadorean inmates were killed in prison riots in 2021 and 2022, President Daniel Noboa made restoring order in jails one of the central pillars of his security strategy when he took office in 2023.

While the government has sharply curbed the number of riots, figures revealed in a Reuters investigation show prison deaths are reaching levels not seen since the height of the unrest.

Deaths of inmates almost quadrupled year-on-year in 2025 due to both violence and natural causes, including a tuberculosis outbreak, according to the figures obtained by Reuters through a freedom-of-information request to the Interior Ministry. Deaths attributed to violence alone also rose fourfold from the year before.

The smell of baked haddock wafts through a parish as local families attend a church-sponsored Friday night dinner together. Heaps of coleslaw, macaroni salad and mashed potatoes fill diners’ plates, yet no trace of meat products such as beef are to be found.

The Lenten season has begun.

Unlike New Year’s, Christmas, Halloween, St. Valentine’s Day and other pagan holidays that are celebrated by the secular, non-religious world, Lent is observed by dedicated religious believers.