Day-to-Day Killings in the nation Decline 37% In Claudia Sheinbaum, According to Official Data

The typical number of everyday homicides monthly in Mexico has dropped by thirty-seven percent since Head of State Claudia Sheinbaum assumed power, according to fresh official figures. Nevertheless, public safety experts have cautioned that homicide numbers could fail to signal enhanced countrywide security.

Significant Drop in Daily Averages

There was an mean of close to 55 murders a day in November as opposed to roughly 87 when Claudia Sheinbaum took the presidential office in the previous September. This announcement was provided by the director of the nation's federal safety system, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the president’s regular news conference on a recent Tuesday.

“The figures in homicides that we’ve had in these months is very important,” Sheinbaum said, explaining that the previous month the smallest number of homicides were recorded for any single November in the last decade.

Recent Background and Government Plan

Fierce drug cartel rivalries, alongside the administration's heavily military operations to combat the trafficking organizations, have led to Mexico’s homicide numbers escalate in the past few years. The figure peaked at a peak of 36,773 homicides in 2020, per the nation's national statistics office.

That gave Mexico a homicide rate more than 4x greater than that of the United States. From that point, murders have been on the decrease, dropping to 33,550 the previous year. Sheinbaum has credited her national security approach for an ostensibly more pronounced decline in killings in the current year.

At a press conference in August, the President declared: “There is a strategy, we have oversight of the plan, and we have detailed tracking locality by locality in some cases. The approach is effective. And we have to keep working at it each day.”

The central components of the President's security strategy involve:

• Strengthening Mexico’s national guard.
• Advancing intelligence and investigative capabilities.
• Greater coordination between government authorities.

Analyst Warnings and Data Limitations

Nevertheless, public safety analysts urged caution that using homicide statistics to draw a conclusion of pacification was misleading. This is especially true given the increase in other criminal activities such as people going missing.

“This would be positive information if this were a drop, but I think we shouldn't just focus on the murder data and say: ‘Alright, excellent,’” stated Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an authority on Mexico's criminal organizations. “I would be tentatively positive.”

As reported by the public policy analysis organization Mexico Evalúa, murders in total dropped by over 20% in the first 10 months of the current year relative to the identical period the previous year. However, disappearances have gone up by 15% and in certain regions have risen by as much as 200%.

“Data on murders is no longer reliable for gauging the context of insecurity,” said Armando Vargas, a safety expert at Mexico Evalúa. “Firstly, we have law enforcement and investigators who do not have the capacity or the inclination to accurately recognize and categorize bodies. Secondly, organised [criminals] … have the capability to conceal violent acts through disappearances.”

Vargas added that relying on month-to-month means of everyday killings was also concerning because it might mask periods when there were notably elevated numbers of murders.

“Relying on the daily mean renders high peaks of violent crime less visible,” he concluded.

Arrests and Confiscations as Metrics of Success

An area where the administration can cite the effectiveness of its security plan is on detentions and confiscations. Close to 40,000 individuals were apprehended between October 2024 and November 2025 for major offenses, per government data. Over 20,000 guns were confiscated and 311 tons of drugs seized.

“Donald Trump can't accuse President Sheinbaum of inaction, because the reality is she is accomplishing a lot with these many thousands of detentions, many thousands of confiscations, and all the tactical degrading of organised crime. It’s very politically advantageous,” said Vargas.

Persistent Violence and Societal Anger

However notwithstanding these measures, Mexico is still beset by severe bloodshed, with several states in the grip of cartel-related bloodshed. Recently there was a notable murder of a popular local official in the region of Michoacan, one of 10 mayors murdered in the last 12 months.

A short time later, thousands of young people demonstrated in the capital and throughout the country to show their anger at corruption and narco-violence.

“The government shares [data] in a manner to construct a story of safety. From a political standpoint it’s extremely effective, socially it’s extremely questionable,” Vargas said.