MEXICO CITY — The Mexican authorities boasted Thursday a pointy decline in murder charges, presenting the figures as proof that its safety technique is working, whereas analysts cautioned that the numbers might not absolutely mirror the nation’s violence.
Throughout President Claudia Sheinbaum’s day by day information convention, officers stated Mexico recorded 17.5 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2025, the bottom charge since 2016.
That compares with 29 killings per 100,000 folks in 2018, when homicides reached their highest stage in 20 years.
Sheinbaum, of the leftist Morena occasion, stated homicides dropped 40% between September 2024 — the month earlier than she took workplace — and December 2025.
“This implies 34 fewer homicides each day, and it’s the lowest determine since 2016,” Sheinbaum stated.
She attributed the decline to a method primarily based on coordination amongst safety forces, justice establishments, prosecutors’ places of work and state governors.
Nonetheless, Mexico’s public safety secretariat has not but printed knowledge of the entire 2025 murder figures and neither has the Statistics Institute, which releases knowledge yearly that’s thought-about extra dependable as a result of it’s primarily based on dying certificates however is printed after a monthslong delay.
Mexico’s murder charge started rising sharply in 2006, following the launch of a military-led marketing campaign in opposition to drug cartels below then-President Felipe Calderón of the conservative PAN occasion.
Killings stored rising from then and peaked throughout the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who ruled from 2018 to 2024 and backed Sheinbaum’s candidacy.
After taking workplace on Oct. 1, 2024, Sheinbaum hardened the federal government’s safety strategy amid stress from america, shifting away from López Obrador’s “hugs, not bullets” coverage and prioritizing intelligence work and interagency coordination.
Lisa Sánchez, director of the nongovernmental group Mexico United Towards Crime, stated homicides are down, however she cautioned that not the entire vital knowledge is on the market to make significant comparisons. “We do not understand how they’re compiled and dealt with,” she stated.
Official figures of lacking folks preserve rising, and have reached greater than 133,000. New clandestine graves are continually discovered in several elements of the nation.
Sánchez stated some killings could also be undercounted as a result of some lacking folks could also be lifeless or as a result of some violent deaths are recorded below different classes, corresponding to accidents, as a substitute of homicides.
Safety analyst David Saucedo stated there are additionally different various explanations being extensively mentioned by researchers. Violence could also be reducing in some areas as a result of legal teams have consolidated management, lowering open battle after eliminating rivals, he stated.
Regardless of the reported decline, violence linked to organized crime stays a actuality in a number of states, together with Sinaloa, Michoacan, Jalisco and Guanajuato, the place a number of drug cartels function.
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AP journalist Martín Silva Rey contributed to this report.
