Day-to-Day Murders in the nation Drop Over a Third During President Sheinbaum, According to Official Data

The typical number of per-day homicides monthly in the country has fallen by more than a third since Head of State Claudia Sheinbaum began her term, per recent government statistics. However, public safety analysts have advised that homicide figures could fail to point to better 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 nearly 87 when Sheinbaum took the presidential office in September. This announcement was shared by the director of the country’s federal safety agency, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the leader's daily press briefing on Tuesday.

“The result in homicides that we have seen during these past months is extremely notable,” Claudia Sheinbaum remarked, noting that last month the least number of homicides were registered for any single November in the last 10 years.

Historical Context and Official Plan

Fierce cartel infighting, coupled with the administration's highly military efforts to confront the drug gangs, have led to Mexico’s homicide rate escalate in the past few years. The rate reached a maximum of 36,773 homicides in 2020, according to the country’s official data agency.

That resulted in Mexico a murder figure over four times greater than that of the United States. However, murders have been on the decrease, declining to 33,550 the previous year. The President has credited her public safety approach for an ostensibly steeper reduction in killings in the current year.

At a media briefing in the summer, the President said: “We have a plan, we have tracking of the plan, and we have detailed tracking locality by locality in some cases. The strategy is effective. And we have to keep working at it daily.”

The central pillars of Sheinbaum’s security strategy include:

• Reinforcing Mexico’s national guard.
• Improving intelligence and investigation efforts.
• Enhanced cooperation between various departments.

Expert Warnings and Data Concerns

Nevertheless, security experts urged caution that focusing solely on homicide numbers to assess the situation of peace was problematic. This is notably true given the uptick in different crimes such as forced disappearances.

“That would be excellent news if this were a drop, but I think we must not just concentrate on the homicide numbers and say: ‘Alright, good,’” stated Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an specialist on Mexico's cartels. “I would be cautiously positive.”

As reported by the policy research thinktank Mexico Evalúa, homicides in total fell by over 20% in the initial 10 months of the current year compared with the identical period the previous year. However, missing persons cases have risen by 15% and in certain regions have surged by up to 200%.

“Statistics on murders is no longer useful for estimating the context of insecurity,” stated Armando Vargas, a security expert at Mexico Evalúa. “Firstly, we have police and investigators who lack the ability or the inclination to correctly recognize and categorize corpses. Secondly, organized [criminals] … have the ability to mask violent acts through disappearances.”

Vargas noted that using monthly means of everyday killings was similarly an issue because it might hide days when there were particularly high numbers of murders.

“Using the daily mean makes high peaks of violent crime invisible,” he concluded.

Detentions and Confiscations as Measures of Success

An area where the administration can highlight the effectiveness of its security strategy is on arrests and confiscations. Almost 40,000 people were detained between last October and November 2025 for major offenses, according to government data. Over 20,000 guns were seized and 311 tonnes of narcotics intercepted.

“The former US president cannot claim President Sheinbaum of inaction, because the reality is she is accomplishing a lot with these many thousands of detentions, thousands of confiscations, and all the operational weakening of organised crime. It’s highly politically beneficial,” stated Vargas.

Ongoing Violence and Public Frustration

However despite these efforts, Mexico is still plagued by extreme violence, with a number of states in the midst of cartel-related violence. Recently there was a prominent murder of a popular local official in the state of Michoacan, among 10 local leaders murdered in the last 12 months.

A short time after, many thousands of protesters took to the streets in the capital and across the country to voice their outrage at graft and drug violence.

“The federal government presents [data] in a manner to build a narrative of safety. From a political standpoint it’s extremely effective, from a social perspective it’s highly debatable,” the analyst remarked.