Day-to-Day Killings in the nation Drop Thirty-Seven Percent During the Sheinbaum Administration, Per Government Data

The mean count of everyday homicides per month in the country has fallen by 37% since President Claudia Sheinbaum assumed power, as stated by new administrative data. However, public safety experts have advised that murder data could fail to signal enhanced national safety.

Marked Decline in Per-Day Numbers

Officials reported an average of close to 55 murders a day in last November compared with nearly 87 when Sheinbaum began the leadership in September of last year. This announcement was shared by the director of the nation's national safety system, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the president’s daily press briefing on Tuesday.

“The outcome in homicides that we’ve had during these past months is very important,” the President remarked, explaining that the previous month the lowest amount of homicides were recorded for any single November in the past decade.

Recent Background and Government Strategy

Fierce drug cartel internal conflicts, alongside the government’s highly militarised campaigns to confront the trafficking organizations, have caused Mexico’s homicide rate escalate in recent years. The rate peaked at a maximum of 36,773 killings in 2020, according to the country’s official data office.

That meant Mexico a homicide rate more than four times greater than the United States. Since then, murders have been on the decline, falling to 33,550 last year. The President has attributed her national security approach for an seemingly steeper drop in killings in the current year.

At a news briefing in August, the President stated: “We have a plan, we have tracking of the strategy, and we have detailed monitoring locality by locality in some cases. The plan functions. And we have to keep working at it each day.”

The main pillars of Sheinbaum’s safety strategy involve:

• Reinforcing Mexico’s national guard.
• Enhancing intelligence and investigative efforts.
• Increased collaboration between various authorities.

Expert Warnings and Data Concerns

But, security researchers urged caution that focusing solely on homicide statistics to paint a picture of improved security was misleading. This is particularly true considering the increase in different crimes such as abductions.

“That would be positive information if this were a decrease, but I think we shouldn't just focus on the homicide data and think: ‘Well then, good,’” stated Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an expert on Mexican organised crime. “I would be guardedly hopeful.”

Per the public policy analysis thinktank Mexico Evalúa, murders overall fell by over 20% in the initial 10 months of this year relative to the same period last year. However, missing persons cases have increased by 15% and in some regions have surged by up to 200%.

“Data on homicides is not reliable for estimating the reality of violence,” said Armando Vargas, a security expert at Mexico Evalúa. “First, we have law enforcement and prosecutors who lack the resources or the inclination to properly identify and classify remains. Second, organized [criminals] … have the means to hide violence through disappearances.”

Vargas noted that using month-to-month means of everyday killings was additionally an issue because it might mask days when there were especially spiking numbers of murders.

“Using the daily mean makes high peaks of violent crime less visible,” he stated.

Arrests and Confiscations as Measures of Progress

An area where the administration can cite the success of its safety strategy is on arrests and seizures. Almost 40,000 people were apprehended between last October and November 2025 for serious offenses, according to official data. Over 20,000 guns were confiscated and 311 tons of narcotics confiscated.

“The former US president can't accuse President Sheinbaum of not acting, because in reality she is accomplishing a lot with these many thousands of arrests, many thousands of seizures, and all the tactical degrading of organised crime. It’s very in political terms profitable,” commented Vargas.

Ongoing Unrest and Societal Anger

Yet notwithstanding these efforts, Mexico continues to be grappling with severe bloodshed, with multiple regions in the throes of cartel-related violence. Recently there was a notable murder of a popular local official in the state of Michoacan, among 10 local leaders killed in the last year.

Weeks after, many thousands of youth took to the streets in the capital and across the nation to express their anger at corruption and drug violence.

“The government presents [data] in a way to build a story of security. From a political standpoint it’s extremely potent, socially it’s highly problematic,” Vargas said.