Everyday Killings in the nation Drop 37% In Claudia Sheinbaum, As per Official Statistics

The mean count of daily homicides monthly in Mexico has dropped by thirty-seven percent since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office, according to new administrative statistics. Nevertheless, public safety analysts have cautioned that murder numbers could fail to signal improved national security.

Significant Reduction in Per-Day Figures

There was an average of nearly 55 homicides a day in November versus roughly 87 when Claudia Sheinbaum began the leadership in September. This information was shared by the head of the country’s national safety agency, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the president’s daily news conference on a recent Tuesday.

“The result in homicides that we’ve had over these past months is remarkably notable,” the President said, noting that the previous month the lowest number of murders were recorded for any November in the last decade.

Historical Context and Official Plan

Intense drug cartel rivalries, alongside the government’s heavily militarised operations to take on the cartels, have made Mexico’s murder numbers escalate in the past few years. The rate hit a maximum of 36,773 homicides in 2020, according to the country’s national statistics agency.

That gave Mexico a homicide figure over 4x higher than the US. However, murders have been on the downward trend, declining to 33,550 in the last calendar year. The President has attributed her public safety approach for an apparently steeper decline in homicides in the current year.

At a press conference in the summer, the Mexican leader declared: “There is a strategy, we have tracking of the strategy, and we have specific tracking municipality by municipality in certain cases. The approach works. And we have to persist at it daily.”

The central components of Sheinbaum’s security strategy encompass:

• Strengthening Mexico’s domestic security force.
• Enhancing intelligence and investigation capabilities.
• Greater coordination between various agencies.

Analyst Skepticism and Statistical Concerns

But, public safety analysts warned that focusing solely on homicide numbers to assess the situation of improved security was misleading. This is notably true considering the increase in different crimes such as forced disappearances.

“That would be positive news if this was a reduction, but I think we must not just focus on the murder numbers and conclude: ‘Well then, great,’” commented Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an expert on Mexican cartels. “I would be tentatively optimistic.”

Per the public policy analysis thinktank Mexico Evalúa, homicides in total fell by more than 20% in the initial 10 months of this year compared with the identical period last year. But, missing persons cases have gone up by 15% and in some regions have risen by up to 200%.

“Statistics on homicides is not reliable for estimating the situation of insecurity,” said Armando Vargas, a safety analyst at Mexico Evalúa. “Firstly, we have law enforcement and prosecutors who lack the ability or the desire to correctly identify and categorize corpses. Secondly, organized [criminals] … have the means to conceal violent acts through disappearances.”

Vargas pointed out that relying on monthly means of daily homicides was additionally an issue because it could mask periods when there were especially high levels of murders.

“Using the per-day mean renders spikes of violent crime unseen,” he stated.

Detentions and Seizures as Metrics of Progress

Where the government can point to the effectiveness of its security strategy is on arrests and confiscations. Almost 40,000 people were arrested between October 2024 and November 2025 for serious offenses, according to official figures. More than 20,000 guns were seized and 311 tonnes of drugs intercepted.

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

Ongoing Violence and Public Frustration

But in spite of these measures, Mexico continues to be plagued by severe violence, with multiple regions in the grip of cartel-fueled bloodshed. Last month there was a notable murder of a well-liked mayor in the region of Michoacan, among 10 mayors murdered in the last year.

A short time later, thousands of young people protested in the capital and throughout the nation to show their outrage at graft and drug violence.

“The government presents [data] in a manner to create a picture of improvement. Politically it’s highly effective, from a social perspective it’s extremely debatable,” the analyst remarked.