Daily Killings in Mexico Drop Thirty-Seven Percent During Claudia Sheinbaum, Per Government Statistics

The mean count of daily killings per month in the country has dropped by 37% since Head of State Claudia Sheinbaum took office, as stated by fresh administrative figures. But, security experts have warned that murder data may not indicate better countrywide stability.

Marked Reduction in Daily Numbers

Officials reported an mean of close to 55 murders a day in November compared with almost 87 when the President assumed the leadership in September of last year. This announcement was delivered by the chief of the nation's federal safety agency, Marcela Figueroa Franco, during the leader's regular press briefing on a recent Tuesday.

“The outcome in killings that have been recorded over these past months is extremely notable,” Claudia Sheinbaum said, explaining that the previous month the least number of homicides were registered for any November in the past decade.

Recent Background and Official Plan

Intense organized crime internal conflicts, coupled with the government’s highly military campaigns to confront the drug gangs, have made Mexico’s homicide numbers rise sharply in recent times. The figure peaked at a peak of 36,773 homicides in 2020, as reported by the nation's official data office.

That gave Mexico a homicide figure over 4x higher than that of the United States. From that point, homicides have been on the downward trend, declining to 33,550 last year. Sheinbaum has attributed her public safety strategy for an ostensibly more pronounced drop in killings in the current year.

At a news briefing in August, the President declared: “There is a plan, there is oversight of the plan, and there is specific monitoring locality by locality in certain cases. The approach functions. And we have to persist at it each day.”

The main elements of the President's safety plan encompass:

• Bolstering Mexico’s federal guard.
• Advancing information gathering and investigative work.
• Increased cooperation between government agencies.

Expert Warnings and Data Concerns

However, security analysts cautioned that using murder numbers to paint a picture of peace was flawed. This is particularly true given the increase in other criminal activities such as forced disappearances.

“That would be positive information if this were a decrease, but I think we must not just look at the murder data and think: ‘Well then, good,’” stated Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, an authority on Mexican organised crime. “I would be cautiously optimistic.”

Per the policy analysis thinktank Mexico Evalúa, killings in total dropped by over 20% in the first 10 months of the current year relative to the same period last year. Yet, missing persons cases have gone up by 15% and in some states have increased by as much as 200%.

“Numbers on homicides is no longer valid for assessing the context of violence,” said Armando Vargas, a safety expert at Mexico Evalúa. “Firstly, we have police and prosecutors who do not have the ability or the will to properly recognize and classify remains. Second, organized [criminals] … have the means to mask violence through abductions.”

Vargas added that using month-to-month means of daily killings was also an issue because it may obscure periods when there were notably spiking levels of killings.

“Using the per-day average makes surges of violent crime less visible,” he said.

Arrests and Seizures as Measures of Success

An area where the administration can point to the effectiveness of its security plan is on arrests and confiscations. Almost 40,000 people were apprehended between October 2024 and November 2025 for serious offenses, per official figures. Over 20,000 guns were seized and 311 tonnes of drugs intercepted.

“Donald Trump can't accuse President Sheinbaum of not acting, because actually she is accomplishing a lot with these many thousands of arrests, many thousands of confiscations, and all the operational weakening of organised crime. It’s very in political terms advantageous,” stated Vargas.

Persistent Unrest and Societal Anger

Yet in spite of these efforts, Mexico continues to be beset by high violence, with a number of regions in the midst of cartel-driven violence. In the previous month there was a high-profile killing of a popular local official in the state of Michoacan, among 10 mayors murdered in the past year.

A short time after, many thousands of protesters demonstrated in Mexico City and throughout the country to show their anger at corruption and narco-violence.

“The administration shares [data] in a manner to construct a picture of safety. Politically it’s highly successful, socially it’s extremely problematic,” the analyst remarked.