Everyday Homicides in Mexico Drop Over a Third Under Claudia Sheinbaum, According to Government Figures
The typical count of daily murders each month in Mexico has decreased by 37% since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office, as stated by fresh government data. Nevertheless, security specialists have advised that murder figures could fail to signal improved countrywide safety.
Significant Drop in Per-Day Figures
Officials reported an average of close to 55 murders a day in November as opposed to roughly 87 when Claudia Sheinbaum began the presidency in the previous September. This data was provided by the chief of the country’s federal public security agency, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the leader's daily press briefing on Tuesday.
“The outcome in killings that we have seen during these months is extremely important,” the President said, adding that in November the smallest figure of murders were documented for any November in the past decade.
Recent Background and Official Plan
Violent organized crime rivalries, combined with the administration's highly military campaigns to combat the cartels, have caused Mexico’s homicide numbers escalate in recent times. The rate hit a record high of 36,773 homicides in 2020, according to the nation's official data agency.
That gave Mexico a homicide figure more than four times higher than that of the United States. Since then, homicides have been on the decrease, falling to 33,550 last year. Claudia Sheinbaum has linked her public safety approach for an seemingly sharper drop in killings this year.
At a news briefing in the summer, the Mexican leader said: “There is a plan, we have monitoring of the plan, and we have detailed tracking locality by locality in certain cases. The plan is effective. And we have to continue working at it every day.”
The central elements of Sheinbaum’s safety strategy involve:
- Bolstering Mexico’s domestic security force.
- Improving intelligence and investigative efforts.
- Enhanced cooperation between various agencies.
Analyst Caution and Statistical Concerns
But, public safety experts cautioned that focusing solely on homicide numbers to assess the situation of pacification was problematic. This is notably true in light of the increase in other crimes such as people going missing.
“That would be positive news if this were a reduction, but I think we can’t just concentrate on the murder numbers and think: ‘Oh well, excellent,’” stated Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an specialist on Mexico's organised crime. “I would be tentatively positive.”
Per the policy research thinktank Mexico Evalúa, homicides overall dropped by more than 20% in the first 10 months of the current year compared with the identical timeframe the previous year. Yet, disappearances have risen by 15% and in some regions have surged by up to 200%.
“Statistics on homicides is no longer useful for estimating the context of insecurity,” argued Armando Vargas, a security analyst at Mexico Evalúa. “Firstly, we have police and prosecutors who do not have the capacity or the desire to correctly identify and categorize bodies. Second, organized [criminals] … have the ability to mask violence through disappearances.”
Vargas added that relying on monthly averages of daily killings was also concerning because it might hide periods when there were especially spiking levels of killings.
“Employing the per-day mean makes surges of violence less visible,” he stated.
Detentions and Seizures as Measures of Success
An area where the government can point to the effectiveness of its safety plan is on detentions and seizures. Nearly 40,000 suspects were detained between last October and November 2025 for serious crimes, per official figures. More than 20,000 weapons were taken and 311 tonnes of narcotics seized.
“The former US president can't claim President Sheinbaum of inaction, because actually she is doing a lot with these thousands of arrests, thousands of confiscations, and all the tactical degrading of criminal groups. It’s very politically profitable,” commented Vargas.
Persistent Unrest and Public Anger
But notwithstanding these actions, Mexico remains grappling with high violence, with a number of regions in the midst of cartel-fueled conflict. In the previous month there was a notable assassination of a well-liked mayor in the region of Michoacan, one of 10 local leaders killed in the last year.
Weeks later, thousands of youth took to the streets in the capital and throughout the nation to express their anger at graft and cartel violence.
“The administration presents [data] in a manner to construct a picture of security. From a political standpoint it’s extremely successful, socially it’s very problematic,” Vargas remarked.