Day-to-Day Killings in the nation Drop Over a Third In the Sheinbaum Administration, As per Official Data

The mean number of daily killings monthly in the country has dropped by more than a third since President Claudia Sheinbaum assumed power, according to new government statistics. Nevertheless, security specialists have advised that homicide numbers may not point to improved countrywide security.

Marked Decline in Per-Day Figures

There was an mean of close to 55 murders a day in last November compared with almost 87 when Claudia Sheinbaum began the presidential office in September. This information was shared by the director of the country’s national safety system, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the president’s daily news conference on Tuesday.

“The result in killings that we’ve had in these past months is remarkably notable,” the President said, explaining that in November the least number of murders were registered for any single November in the last 10 years.

Recent Background and Government Plan

Intense organized crime infighting, alongside the administration's highly militarised operations to confront the cartels, have led to Mexico’s murder rate escalate in recent years. The rate hit a record high of 36,773 killings in 2020, as reported by the nation's official data agency.

That gave Mexico a homicide figure more than 4x greater than the United States. However, homicides have been on the decline, falling to 33,550 last year. The President has credited her national security strategy for an seemingly sharper drop in homicides in the current year.

At a news briefing in August, the head of state declared: “There is a strategy, we have tracking of the plan, and there is detailed tracking town by town in some cases. The plan functions. And we have to keep working at it daily.”

The central elements of Sheinbaum’s security plan include:

• Reinforcing Mexico’s federal guard.
• Improving information gathering and investigation efforts.
• Greater cooperation between various departments.

Analyst Warnings and Statistical Limitations

But, public safety experts cautioned that relying on murder statistics to draw a conclusion of peace was flawed. This is especially true considering the increase in other crimes such as people going missing.

“It would be very good information if this was a decrease, but I think we must not just focus on the murder data and conclude: ‘Alright, excellent,’” said Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an authority on Mexican criminal organizations. “I would be guardedly optimistic.”

As reported by the public policy research organization Mexico Evalúa, murders in total dropped by over 20% in the initial 10 months of the current year relative to the same timeframe last year. Yet, missing persons cases have risen by 15% and in certain regions have increased by as much as 200%.

“Numbers on murders is no longer useful for gauging the reality of public insecurity,” said Armando Vargas, a security analyst at Mexico Evalúa. “First, we have police and investigators who do not have the resources or the desire to accurately identify and categorize corpses. Second, organized [criminals] … have the ability to conceal violence through disappearances.”

Vargas pointed out that relying on month-to-month averages of daily homicides was additionally problematic because it may hide periods when there were especially spiking numbers of murders.

“Employing the daily average renders surges of violence unseen,” he concluded.

Detentions and Confiscations as Metrics of Progress

An area where the government can point to the effectiveness of its safety strategy is on detentions and confiscations. Nearly 40,000 individuals were arrested between October 2024 and November 2025 for major offenses, according to government figures. More than 20,000 weapons were confiscated and 311 tons of narcotics confiscated.

“The former US president cannot accuse President Sheinbaum of inaction, because actually she is doing a lot with these thousands of detentions, many thousands of confiscations, and all the operational weakening of organised crime. It’s extremely politically profitable,” commented Vargas.

Ongoing Violence and Societal Frustration

But despite these actions, Mexico is still grappling with extreme violence, with multiple states in the midst of cartel-fueled violence. Last month there was a notable killing of a popular mayor in the region of Michoacan, one of 10 mayors murdered in the past year.

A short time after, many thousands of youth demonstrated in the capital and across the country to express their anger at graft and cartel violence.

“The administration frames [data] in a way to build a story of improvement. From a political standpoint it’s extremely potent, socially it’s extremely questionable,” Vargas remarked.