Everyday Homicides in Mexico Fall Thirty-Seven Percent During Claudia Sheinbaum, Per Government Statistics

The average count of per-day killings per month in Mexico has fallen by thirty-seven percent since Head of State Claudia Sheinbaum took office, per new official data. However, security experts have cautioned that homicide numbers could fail to point to enhanced national security.

Notable Reduction in Per-Day Figures

There was an mean of close to 55 homicides a day in the month of November as opposed to almost 87 when Sheinbaum assumed the presidential office in the previous September. This information was provided by the chief of the country’s national public security system, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the president’s daily news conference on Tuesday.

“The outcome in homicides that we’ve had in these months is remarkably notable,” Sheinbaum stated, noting that the previous month the least amount of murders were documented for any single November in the past decade.

Recent Background and Official Plan

Violent organized crime internal conflicts, alongside the government’s heavily military operations to combat the drug gangs, have made Mexico’s homicide numbers escalate in the past few years. The figure hit a record high of 36,773 homicides in 2020, as reported by the nation's official data agency.

That meant Mexico a murder rate over four times greater than the United States. From that point, killings have been on the decline, falling to 33,550 in the last calendar year. The President has linked her national security strategy for an ostensibly more pronounced drop in homicides this year.

At a news briefing in August, the Mexican leader declared: “There is a strategy, there is tracking of the strategy, and there is specific tracking municipality by municipality in certain cases. The approach functions. And we have to continue working at it each day.”

The central pillars of Sheinbaum’s security strategy encompass:

• Reinforcing Mexico’s domestic security force.
• Improving intelligence and investigative efforts.
• Increased cooperation between government agencies.

Expert Skepticism and Data Concerns

Nevertheless, public safety researchers cautioned that relying on murder data to paint a picture of pacification was problematic. This is notably true given the rise in different crimes such as forced disappearances.

“This would be excellent news if this was a decrease, but I think we can’t just concentrate on the murder numbers and think: ‘Well then, excellent,’” commented Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an specialist on Mexican cartels. “I would be tentatively positive.”

As reported by the public policy analysis thinktank Mexico Evalúa, homicides overall fell by over 20% in the initial 10 months of this year versus the identical timeframe the previous year. However, disappearances have risen by 15% and in certain regions have risen by up to 200%.

“Statistics on murders is no longer reliable for gauging the context of insecurity,” said Armando Vargas, a security analyst at Mexico Evalúa. “Firstly, we have law enforcement and prosecutors who lack the resources or the inclination to properly recognize and classify remains. Second, organised [criminals] … have the ability to mask violence through disappearances.”

Vargas noted that relying on month-to-month averages of daily homicides was also an issue because it could mask periods when there were especially high numbers of murders.

“Relying on the daily average makes high peaks of violent crime invisible,” he concluded.

Arrests and Seizures as Measures of Progress

An area where the administration can cite the success of its safety plan is on arrests and seizures. Almost 40,000 suspects were apprehended between last October and November 2025 for major crimes, according to official figures. More than 20,000 firearms were confiscated and 311 tons of drugs confiscated.

“The former US president cannot accuse President Sheinbaum of not acting, because in reality she is accomplishing a lot with these many thousands of arrests, many thousands of confiscations, and all the tactical weakening of organised crime. It’s extremely in political terms beneficial,” stated Vargas.

Ongoing Violence and Societal Anger

Yet notwithstanding these actions, Mexico continues to be beset by extreme violence, with several regions in the midst of cartel-fueled violence. Recently there was a prominent killing of a popular local official in the region of Michoacan, one of 10 mayors killed in the last year.

Weeks after, thousands of protesters took to the streets in the capital and throughout the nation to express their anger at corruption and narco-violence.

“The administration shares [data] in a way to construct a picture of safety. From a political standpoint it’s highly potent, from a social perspective it’s extremely debatable,” Vargas remarked.