Everyday Killings in Mexico Fall Thirty-Seven Percent During President Sheinbaum, According to Official Data

The typical count of everyday murders each month in the country has decreased by 37% since Head of State Claudia Sheinbaum assumed power, as stated by new government data. But, public safety analysts have advised that murder data could fail to signal better countrywide safety.

Marked Reduction in Daily Figures

There was an mean of almost 55 homicides a day in the month of November as opposed to nearly 87 when Sheinbaum took the presidential office in September of last year. This announcement was provided by the director of the nation's federal safety system, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the leader's daily news conference on a recent Tuesday.

“The figures in homicides that we have seen over these months is remarkably notable,” the President stated, adding that in November the lowest number of murders were documented for any single November in the last decade.

Historical Context and Official Strategy

Intense drug cartel rivalries, coupled with the government’s heavily militarised efforts to combat the trafficking organizations, have led to Mexico’s homicide numbers soar in the past few years. The rate hit a peak of 36,773 homicides in 2020, according to the nation's official data agency.

That meant Mexico a homicide rate more than four times higher than that of the United States. From that point, murders have been on the downward trend, declining to 33,550 last year. The President has credited her national security plan for an apparently sharper reduction in killings this year.

At a news briefing in the summer, the Mexican leader said: “There is a plan, there is tracking of the plan, and we have specific monitoring municipality by municipality in some cases. The approach works. And we have to keep working at it every day.”

The central elements of Sheinbaum’s safety strategy include:

• Bolstering Mexico’s domestic security force.
• Enhancing information gathering and investigative efforts.
• Greater cooperation between various authorities.

Expert Caution and Statistical Concerns

However, security researchers cautioned that using murder statistics to draw a conclusion of pacification was flawed. This is particularly true in light of the uptick in different crimes such as people going missing.

“That would be very good news if this was a decrease, but I think we can’t just concentrate on the homicide numbers and think: ‘Alright, great,’” said Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an specialist on Mexican organised crime. “I would be guardedly positive.”

Per the policy research organization Mexico Evalúa, homicides in total dropped by over 20% in the initial 10 months of the current year compared with the identical period last year. However, disappearances have increased by 15% and in some states have risen by as much as 200%.

“Statistics on homicides is not useful for gauging the reality of violence,” said Armando Vargas, a security analyst at Mexico Evalúa. “First, we have police and investigators who do not have the capacity or the will to accurately identify and classify corpses. Second, organised [criminals] … have the ability to hide violence through abductions.”

Vargas noted that relying on month-to-month means of everyday killings was similarly an issue because it could obscure periods when there were especially elevated numbers of killings.

“Using the per-day average renders high peaks of violent crime invisible,” he said.

Arrests and Seizures as Measures of Progress

An area where the administration can highlight the success of its security plan is on arrests and seizures. Close to 40,000 people were arrested between October 2024 and November 2025 for major crimes, according to official figures. More than 20,000 weapons were confiscated and 311 tons of narcotics seized.

“Trump can't claim President Sheinbaum of not acting, because in reality she is accomplishing a lot with these thousands of detentions, many thousands of seizures, and all the tactical weakening of organised crime. It’s extremely politically beneficial,” stated Vargas.

Ongoing Unrest and Societal Frustration

But notwithstanding these actions, Mexico remains plagued by high bloodshed, with several regions in the midst of cartel-related violence. Last month there was a high-profile assassination of a well-liked local official in the state of Michoacan, among 10 mayors killed in the past year.

A short time later, many thousands of youth took to the streets in Mexico City and throughout the country to express their anger at graft and narco-violence.

“The federal government presents [data] in a way to create a story of improvement. Politically it’s extremely effective, socially it’s highly problematic,” the analyst concluded.