High -ranking security officials attended the Thursday morning press conference by President Claudia Sheinbaum to present the latest data on homicides, arrests and convulsions of drugs and firearms.
Sheinbaum herself said that the drop in homicides since she took office is the result of the new security strategy that her government has implemented.
The homicides fell by almost 25% in April compared to the last month of the presidency of AMLO
Marcela Figueroa Franco, head of the Public National Security System (SNSP), said that there were an average of 65.3 homicides per day in April, according to preliminary data.
The figure represents a drop of 24.9% compared to September 2024, the last month of the duration of six years of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Figueroa stressed that last month was the least violent April since 2016 in terms of homicides.
27% drop in murders between 2018 and 2025
The SNSP chief also presented data that showed that the daily average for homicides this year is 27.3% lower than the daily average in 2018, during which Enrique Peña Nieto was president of the first 11 months.
There were an average of 73.1 homicides per day between January 1 and April 30, 27 less than the average of 100.5 murders per day throughout 2018.
Compared to 2024, homicides are down 11% so far this year.
Guanajuato leads Mexico for homicides
Figueroa reported that Guanajuato had recorded 1,260 homicides between January 1 and April 30, a figure that represents 14.4% of all murders in Mexico in the first four months of the year.
According to the data it presented, 8,770 people were murdered between January and April. A large majority of homicides in Mexico are linked to organized crime.
The number of murders in Guanajuato in the first four months of the year is more than double the number of Baja California, the second most violent state in Mexico so far in 2025.
Baja California, which includes the border cities of Tijuana and Mexicali, recorded 610 murders between January and April, representing 7% of the national total.
The following five most violent states in terms of total homicides were:
- México State: 601 homicides or 6.9% of the national total.
- Chihuahua: 589 homicides or 6.7% of the national total.
- Sinaloa: 521 homicides or 5.9% of the national total.
- Jalisco: 495 homicides or 5.6% of the national total.
- Guerrero: 493 homicides or 5.6% of the national total.
Just over 52% of all Mexico murders in the first four months of the year took place in the seven most violent states.
Thirteen states recorded less than 100 homicides between January and April, of which the Yucatán was the least violent with only five murders.
More than 20,000 people have arrested for high impact crimes since Sheinbaum took office
The Minister of Security Omar García Harfuch reported on the “advanced National Security Strategy During the first seven months of this administration. »»
He said more than 20,000 people had been detained for “high impact crimes” such as murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking and extortion since the federal government took office on October 1.
García Harfuch said that 154 tonnes of illegal drugs and more than 10,000 firearms had been seized during the same period.
Among the people arrested in the past seven months are “operators of criminal organizations … who have generated high levels of violence,” he said.
“… We are sure that these arrests will have an impact on reducing the crime rate in their (old) operating areas, as is already seen in various federal entities in the country,” said García Harfuch.
He also stressed that the army and the navy dismantled 896 clandestine drug laboratories in 19 states since Sheinbaum swore as president last October.
The destruction of laboratories means “less violence in the streets, fewer criminals affecting the tranquility of families, fewer harmful substances that place the health of our young people at risk and fewer resources for criminal organizations,” said García Harfuch.
Sheinbaum: reduction of homicides due to a new safety strategy
Sheinbaum, whose government has demonstrated a greater desire to proactively fighting the groups of organized crimes than the López Obrador administration, praised the army, the Navy and the National Guard for the Labor they do every day to protect Mexican citizens.
She has attributed the drop in homicides since she became president to the implementation of the new national security strategy.
“Attention to the causes (crime), the strengthening of the National Guard, the strengthening of information and the investigation, and the coordination of all the areas (of the police)” contributed to the decline in the number of murders, said Sheinbaum.
“Who performs (security) tasks every day? Of course, the municipal and state police, but in terms of federal forces, it is the national guard, soldiers -too -… and the navies,” she said, adding that the members of the security force “are ready to give their lives to defend the life of other Mexicans”.
