🔗 Share this article Day-to-Day Killings in Mexico Fall 37% In Claudia Sheinbaum, Per Government Figures The mean count of daily homicides monthly in the country has decreased by more than a third since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office, as stated by recent official statistics. Nevertheless, public safety experts have warned that murder figures could fail to signal better national security. Notable Drop in Per-Day Averages There was an average of close to 55 killings a day in November compared with almost 87 when the President took the presidential office in the previous September. This announcement was delivered by the director of the country’s federal public security system, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the leader's regular news conference on Tuesday. “The outcome in homicides that have been recorded over these past months is very important,” Claudia Sheinbaum remarked, explaining that the previous month the least amount of homicides were recorded for any single November in the last decade. Recent Background and Official Plan Violent organized crime infighting, coupled with the administration's highly military campaigns to combat the trafficking organizations, have caused Mexico’s murder rate rise sharply in recent years. The figure hit a peak of 36,773 killings in 2020, per the country’s official data agency. That gave Mexico a murder figure more than 4x higher than the US. However, homicides have been on the decrease, declining to 33,550 the previous year. Sheinbaum has linked her national security approach for an apparently steeper decline in killings this year. At a news briefing in the summer, the President declared: “We have a plan, we have monitoring of the strategy, and we have specific monitoring locality by locality in certain cases. The plan works. And we have to continue working at it daily.” The central components of Sheinbaum’s security strategy involve: Reinforcing Mexico’s national guard. Advancing intelligence and investigation work. Enhanced cooperation between government departments. Expert Skepticism and Statistical Limitations But, public safety analysts warned that using murder statistics to draw a conclusion of peace was problematic. This is especially true considering the rise in different crimes such as abductions. “It would be positive information if this was a drop, but I think we shouldn't just focus on the homicide data and think: ‘Alright, great,’” commented Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an specialist on Mexico's organised crime. “I would be cautiously positive.” As reported by the public policy analysis thinktank Mexico Evalúa, homicides overall dropped by over 20% in the first 10 months of the current year versus the identical period the previous year. But, disappearances have gone up by 15% and in certain regions have increased by up to 200%. “Statistics on murders is no longer useful for estimating the context of violence,” argued Armando Vargas, a security analyst at Mexico Evalúa. “First, we have police and investigators who lack the capacity or the inclination to properly recognize and classify corpses. Secondly, organised [criminals] … have the ability to mask violence through abductions.” Vargas noted that relying on monthly means of everyday killings was additionally problematic because it may obscure periods when there were particularly spiking levels of murders. “Employing the daily mean renders surges of violence less visible,” he concluded. Detentions and Confiscations as Metrics of Success Where the government can point to the effectiveness of its safety strategy is on detentions and seizures. Nearly 40,000 suspects were arrested between October 2024 and November 2025 for major crimes, per government data. Over 20,000 firearms were confiscated and 311 tonnes of drugs confiscated. “The former US president can't claim President Sheinbaum of not acting, because actually she is doing a lot with these many thousands of arrests, thousands of confiscations, and all the operational weakening of criminal groups. It’s very in political terms profitable,” stated Vargas. Persistent Unrest and Societal Frustration But despite these efforts, Mexico is still grappling with high violence, with multiple states in the grip of cartel-driven violence. In the previous month there was a notable assassination of a popular mayor in the region of Michoacan, one of 10 local leaders killed in the last 12 months. Weeks later, many thousands of young people protested in the capital and throughout the country to voice their anger at graft and drug violence. “The administration presents [data] in a way to construct a narrative of improvement. From a political standpoint it’s highly potent, socially it’s highly problematic,” Vargas remarked.
The mean count of daily homicides monthly in the country has decreased by more than a third since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office, as stated by recent official statistics. Nevertheless, public safety experts have warned that murder figures could fail to signal better national security. Notable Drop in Per-Day Averages There was an average of close to 55 killings a day in November compared with almost 87 when the President took the presidential office in the previous September. This announcement was delivered by the director of the country’s federal public security system, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the leader's regular news conference on Tuesday. “The outcome in homicides that have been recorded over these past months is very important,” Claudia Sheinbaum remarked, explaining that the previous month the least amount of homicides were recorded for any single November in the last decade. Recent Background and Official Plan Violent organized crime infighting, coupled with the administration's highly military campaigns to combat the trafficking organizations, have caused Mexico’s murder rate rise sharply in recent years. The figure hit a peak of 36,773 killings in 2020, per the country’s official data agency. That gave Mexico a murder figure more than 4x higher than the US. However, homicides have been on the decrease, declining to 33,550 the previous year. Sheinbaum has linked her national security approach for an apparently steeper decline in killings this year. At a news briefing in the summer, the President declared: “We have a plan, we have monitoring of the strategy, and we have specific monitoring locality by locality in certain cases. The plan works. And we have to continue working at it daily.” The central components of Sheinbaum’s security strategy involve: Reinforcing Mexico’s national guard. Advancing intelligence and investigation work. Enhanced cooperation between government departments. Expert Skepticism and Statistical Limitations But, public safety analysts warned that using murder statistics to draw a conclusion of peace was problematic. This is especially true considering the rise in different crimes such as abductions. “It would be positive information if this was a drop, but I think we shouldn't just focus on the homicide data and think: ‘Alright, great,’” commented Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an specialist on Mexico's organised crime. “I would be cautiously positive.” As reported by the public policy analysis thinktank Mexico Evalúa, homicides overall dropped by over 20% in the first 10 months of the current year versus the identical period the previous year. But, disappearances have gone up by 15% and in certain regions have increased by up to 200%. “Statistics on murders is no longer useful for estimating the context of violence,” argued Armando Vargas, a security analyst at Mexico Evalúa. “First, we have police and investigators who lack the capacity or the inclination to properly recognize and classify corpses. Secondly, organised [criminals] … have the ability to mask violence through abductions.” Vargas noted that relying on monthly means of everyday killings was additionally problematic because it may obscure periods when there were particularly spiking levels of murders. “Employing the daily mean renders surges of violence less visible,” he concluded. Detentions and Confiscations as Metrics of Success Where the government can point to the effectiveness of its safety strategy is on detentions and seizures. Nearly 40,000 suspects were arrested between October 2024 and November 2025 for major crimes, per government data. Over 20,000 firearms were confiscated and 311 tonnes of drugs confiscated. “The former US president can't claim President Sheinbaum of not acting, because actually she is doing a lot with these many thousands of arrests, thousands of confiscations, and all the operational weakening of criminal groups. It’s very in political terms profitable,” stated Vargas. Persistent Unrest and Societal Frustration But despite these efforts, Mexico is still grappling with high violence, with multiple states in the grip of cartel-driven violence. In the previous month there was a notable assassination of a popular mayor in the region of Michoacan, one of 10 local leaders killed in the last 12 months. Weeks later, many thousands of young people protested in the capital and throughout the country to voice their anger at graft and drug violence. “The administration presents [data] in a way to construct a narrative of improvement. From a political standpoint it’s highly potent, socially it’s highly problematic,” Vargas remarked.