Everyday Murders in Mexico Fall Thirty-Seven Percent In Claudia Sheinbaum, Per Official Figures

The mean number of daily homicides each month in Mexico has decreased by 37% since President Claudia Sheinbaum began her term, as stated by new government figures. Nevertheless, public safety specialists have cautioned that murder figures may not signal enhanced countrywide security.

Notable Drop in Daily Averages

There was an average of nearly 55 murders a day in November as opposed to almost 87 when Claudia Sheinbaum began the presidency in September of last year. This data was delivered by the head of the country’s national public security system, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the president’s regular press briefing on a recent Tuesday.

“The outcome in killings that we’ve had during these months is extremely important,” Sheinbaum stated, noting that in November the smallest amount of murders were documented for any single November in the past decade.

Historical Background and Official Plan

Violent drug cartel rivalries, alongside the government’s heavily military operations to confront the drug gangs, have caused Mexico’s homicide rate soar in recent times. The rate hit a record high of 36,773 homicides in 2020, per the nation's national statistics agency.

That meant Mexico a murder rate more than 4x greater than the US. From that point, homicides have been on the decline, declining to 33,550 last year. Claudia Sheinbaum has attributed her national security approach for an apparently sharper decline in homicides this year.

At a press conference in the summer, the head of state stated: “There is a plan, there is oversight of the plan, and there is detailed tracking locality by locality in certain cases. The strategy functions. And we have to persist at it every day.”

The main components of Sheinbaum’s security plan encompass:

• Strengthening Mexico’s domestic security force.
• Enhancing information gathering and investigative work.
• Enhanced cooperation between government departments.

Expert Skepticism and Statistical Limitations

Nevertheless, public safety analysts cautioned that relying on homicide statistics to assess the situation of peace was misleading. This is particularly true in light of the increase in different criminal activities such as abductions.

“That would be very good news if this was a reduction, but I think we can’t just focus on the homicide data and think: ‘Oh well, excellent,’” stated Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an expert on Mexico's cartels. “I would be tentatively hopeful.”

Per the public policy analysis organization Mexico Evalúa, killings in total dropped by more than 20% in the initial 10 months of the current year relative to the same period last year. However, missing persons cases have risen by 15% and in some regions have surged by as much as 200%.

“Statistics on murders is no longer reliable for gauging the context of violence,” stated Armando Vargas, a security analyst at Mexico Evalúa. “First, we have police and investigators who lack the capacity or the desire to accurately identify and classify remains. Second, organised [criminals] … have the capability to mask violence through disappearances.”

Vargas noted that using monthly means of everyday homicides was additionally an issue because it may hide days when there were notably spiking numbers of killings.

“Employing the per-day mean makes spikes of violence invisible,” he said.

Detentions and Seizures as Metrics of Success

An area where the government can point to the effectiveness of its security strategy is on arrests and seizures. Almost 40,000 suspects were arrested between October 2024 and November 2025 for high-impact crimes, according to government data. Over 20,000 firearms were seized and 311 tons of drugs intercepted.

“Donald Trump cannot accuse President Sheinbaum of doing nothing, because actually she is doing a lot with these many thousands of arrests, thousands of confiscations, and all the tactical degrading of criminal groups. It’s very in political terms beneficial,” said Vargas.

Persistent Violence and Societal Anger

However despite these actions, Mexico remains plagued by severe violence, with a number of regions in the midst of cartel-fueled bloodshed. In the previous month there was a notable murder of a well-liked local official in the state of Michoacan, among 10 mayors murdered in the past year.

A short time later, many thousands of protesters demonstrated in Mexico City and throughout the country to voice their outrage at graft and drug violence.

“The administration shares [data] in a way to build a story of improvement. From a political standpoint it’s highly successful, from a social perspective it’s extremely debatable,” Vargas remarked.