🔗 Share this article Day-to-Day Homicides in the nation Drop Over a Third During the Sheinbaum Administration, Per Government Figures The average number of daily homicides each month in the country has decreased by thirty-seven percent since President Claudia Sheinbaum assumed power, per new administrative statistics. Nevertheless, public safety experts have cautioned that homicide numbers may not signal enhanced countrywide safety. Notable Reduction in Per-Day Averages There was an mean of nearly 55 homicides a day in the month of November versus roughly 87 when the President took the presidential office in September of last year. This announcement was shared by the director of the nation's federal public security system, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the president’s regular news conference on a recent Tuesday. “The outcome in homicides that we’ve had over these months is very notable,” the President remarked, explaining that the previous month the least amount of homicides were registered for any single November in the last decade. Historical Background and Government Plan Intense organized crime internal conflicts, combined with the administration's heavily militarised operations to confront the cartels, have caused Mexico’s homicide numbers rise sharply in the past few years. The figure peaked at a record high of 36,773 homicides in 2020, per the country’s official data office. That meant Mexico a homicide rate more than four times greater than the United States. From that point, homicides have been on the decrease, falling to 33,550 last year. The President has attributed her national security plan for an apparently steeper decline in killings in the current year. At a media briefing in August, the head of state stated: “We have a strategy, there is oversight of the strategy, and we have specific tracking town by town in certain cases. The plan is effective. And we have to persist at it daily.” The key pillars of Sheinbaum’s security strategy involve: Bolstering Mexico’s domestic security force. Improving intelligence and investigative efforts. Increased cooperation between various departments. Expert Skepticism and Data Concerns But, public safety experts cautioned that relying on homicide data to assess the situation of pacification was flawed. This is particularly true in light of the uptick in different criminal activities such as forced disappearances. “This would be very good news if this were a drop, but I think we can’t just concentrate on the murder numbers and conclude: ‘Oh well, good,’” stated Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an authority on Mexico's cartels. “I would be cautiously positive.” According to the public policy analysis organization Mexico Evalúa, killings overall dropped by more than 20% in the initial 10 months of this year relative to the same timeframe the previous year. However, disappearances have gone up by 15% and in certain states have surged by up to 200%. “Statistics on murders is not useful for assessing the reality of violence,” said Armando Vargas, a security analyst at Mexico Evalúa. “First, we have police and prosecutors who lack the resources or the desire to correctly identify and classify corpses. Secondly, organized [criminals] … have the ability to hide violence through abductions.” Vargas noted that using month-to-month averages of daily homicides was similarly an issue because it could obscure days when there were particularly elevated numbers of killings. “Using the daily mean renders spikes of violence invisible,” he stated. Arrests and Confiscations as Metrics of Success An area where the administration can highlight the effectiveness of its safety strategy is on detentions and seizures. Close to 40,000 people were arrested between last October and November 2025 for high-impact crimes, per official figures. More than 20,000 weapons were confiscated and 311 tons of drugs seized. “Donald Trump cannot accuse President Sheinbaum of inaction, because in reality she is accomplishing a lot with these thousands of detentions, thousands of confiscations, and all the tactical degrading of criminal groups. It’s very in political terms beneficial,” said Vargas. Ongoing Unrest and Societal Anger However in spite of these efforts, Mexico is still grappling with extreme bloodshed, with a number of states in the grip of cartel-fueled bloodshed. Recently there was a high-profile killing of a well-liked mayor in the region of Michoacan, one of 10 mayors killed in the past year. Weeks later, thousands of protesters demonstrated in Mexico City and across the country to voice their outrage at graft and cartel violence. “The federal government presents [data] in a manner to create a picture of safety. Politically it’s highly successful, socially it’s extremely questionable,” the analyst remarked.
The average number of daily homicides each month in the country has decreased by thirty-seven percent since President Claudia Sheinbaum assumed power, per new administrative statistics. Nevertheless, public safety experts have cautioned that homicide numbers may not signal enhanced countrywide safety. Notable Reduction in Per-Day Averages There was an mean of nearly 55 homicides a day in the month of November versus roughly 87 when the President took the presidential office in September of last year. This announcement was shared by the director of the nation's federal public security system, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the president’s regular news conference on a recent Tuesday. “The outcome in homicides that we’ve had over these months is very notable,” the President remarked, explaining that the previous month the least amount of homicides were registered for any single November in the last decade. Historical Background and Government Plan Intense organized crime internal conflicts, combined with the administration's heavily militarised operations to confront the cartels, have caused Mexico’s homicide numbers rise sharply in the past few years. The figure peaked at a record high of 36,773 homicides in 2020, per the country’s official data office. That meant Mexico a homicide rate more than four times greater than the United States. From that point, homicides have been on the decrease, falling to 33,550 last year. The President has attributed her national security plan for an apparently steeper decline in killings in the current year. At a media briefing in August, the head of state stated: “We have a strategy, there is oversight of the strategy, and we have specific tracking town by town in certain cases. The plan is effective. And we have to persist at it daily.” The key pillars of Sheinbaum’s security strategy involve: Bolstering Mexico’s domestic security force. Improving intelligence and investigative efforts. Increased cooperation between various departments. Expert Skepticism and Data Concerns But, public safety experts cautioned that relying on homicide data to assess the situation of pacification was flawed. This is particularly true in light of the uptick in different criminal activities such as forced disappearances. “This would be very good news if this were a drop, but I think we can’t just concentrate on the murder numbers and conclude: ‘Oh well, good,’” stated Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an authority on Mexico's cartels. “I would be cautiously positive.” According to the public policy analysis organization Mexico Evalúa, killings overall dropped by more than 20% in the initial 10 months of this year relative to the same timeframe the previous year. However, disappearances have gone up by 15% and in certain states have surged by up to 200%. “Statistics on murders is not useful for assessing the reality of violence,” said Armando Vargas, a security analyst at Mexico Evalúa. “First, we have police and prosecutors who lack the resources or the desire to correctly identify and classify corpses. Secondly, organized [criminals] … have the ability to hide violence through abductions.” Vargas noted that using month-to-month averages of daily homicides was similarly an issue because it could obscure days when there were particularly elevated numbers of killings. “Using the daily mean renders spikes of violence invisible,” he stated. Arrests and Confiscations as Metrics of Success An area where the administration can highlight the effectiveness of its safety strategy is on detentions and seizures. Close to 40,000 people were arrested between last October and November 2025 for high-impact crimes, per official figures. More than 20,000 weapons were confiscated and 311 tons of drugs seized. “Donald Trump cannot accuse President Sheinbaum of inaction, because in reality she is accomplishing a lot with these thousands of detentions, thousands of confiscations, and all the tactical degrading of criminal groups. It’s very in political terms beneficial,” said Vargas. Ongoing Unrest and Societal Anger However in spite of these efforts, Mexico is still grappling with extreme bloodshed, with a number of states in the grip of cartel-fueled bloodshed. Recently there was a high-profile killing of a well-liked mayor in the region of Michoacan, one of 10 mayors killed in the past year. Weeks later, thousands of protesters demonstrated in Mexico City and across the country to voice their outrage at graft and cartel violence. “The federal government presents [data] in a manner to create a picture of safety. Politically it’s highly successful, socially it’s extremely questionable,” the analyst remarked.