Barely a day goes by without another report of a massacre in Mexico. Just last weekend, eight people were killed in a shooting in Apaseo el Grande, Guanajuato, and seven people were murdered in an attack in Jiutepec, Morelos.
But despite the constant stream of bad news — cartel infighting in Sinaloa, turf wars in Guerrero, violence in the border region of the southern state of Chiapas, etc. — homicide numbers are, in fact, falling in Mexico, as highlighted by senior security official Marcela Figueroa Franco at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference on Tuesday.
During the second part of the federal government’s fortnightly security update, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch presented data on arrests and drug seizures since Sheinbaum took office on Oct. 1.
Later in her Tuesday morning presser, the president herself responded to reporters’ questions on topics including a potential U.S. invasion of Mexico and the progress that has been made toward mining lithium in Sonora and other parts of the country.
Homicides down almost 7% this year
Figueroa Franco, head of the National Public Security System, presented preliminary data that showed there was a total of 2,234 homicides in November.
She noted that there was an average of 74.5 murder victims every day last month. That was the lowest daily average for any month this year, although it’s likely that the figure will be revised upward.
Figueroa also presented data that showed there was an average of 82.3 homicides per day in the first 11 months of 2024. She highlighted that the daily average was 6.9% lower than that recorded in 2023.
Compared to 2018, when former president Enrique Peña Nieto was in office for the first 11 months of the year, the decline in homicides between January and November was 18.2%.
#VideosLaJornada En el mes de noviembre se registraron en México 2 mil 234 homicidios dolosos, lo que representa un promedio mensual de 74.5, informó la titular del Secretariado Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública, Marcela Figueroa.https://t.co/nuoY2QsNov pic.twitter.com/7F7ZDSTzIv
— La Jornada (@lajornadaonline) December 3, 2024
Figueroa told reporters that 49.5% of the homicides recorded in the first 11 months of the year — 13,463 of 27,558 — occurred in just seven states.
Guanajuato was the most violent, accounting for 10.3% of all murders in Mexico this year, followed by Baja California, México state, Chihuahua, Jalisco, Guerrero and Nuevo León.
Since Sheinbaum was sworn in on Oct. 1, Guanajuato has recorded the highest number of murders among Mexico’s 32 federal entities followed by Sinaloa, where a war between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel has claimed hundreds of lives in recent months.
More than 5,000 arrests for ‘high-impact crimes’ since Oct. 1
García Harfuch reported that 5,333 people were detained for ‘high-impact crimes’ such as murder and kidnapping between Oct. 1 and Dec. 1.
He also said that 57.9 tonnes of drugs were seized in the period, not including more than 415,000 fentanyl pills.
In addition, Mexican authorities confiscated 2,471 firearms in the two months after Sheinbaum took office, Harfuch said.
Most guns used in violent crimes in Mexico are smuggled into Mexico from the United States.
García said that the seizure of narcotics in Mexico over the past two months will ensure that “more than 50 million doses” of drugs don’t reach the streets, “preventing these substances from destroying families and communities.”
“… Taking these weapons off the streets means less violence, less firepower for criminal organizations and more tranquility for Mexican families,” he added.
“… These actions are designed to protect families and build peace in our country,” García said.
‘There won’t be an invasion’ of Mexico
Sheinbaum was once again asked about the possibility of the United States government sending the U.S. military into Mexico to combat cartels during the second Trump administration.
“It won’t happen, there will be a good relationship with President Trump,” she said.
“… There won’t be an invasion, that’s not a scenario we have in mind,” Sheinbaum reiterated.
“And in any case, we have our national anthem,” she added tongue-in-cheek.
The lyrics of the anthem are bellicose in nature, urging Mexicans to defend their homeland amid any foreign invasion.
Preparations to mine lithium in Mexico are ongoing, Sheinbaum says
More than two years after lithium was nationalized in Mexico and the state-owned company Litio para México (LitioMx) was created, no lithium has actually been mined in Mexico.
But Sheinbaum assured reporters that LitioMx is working toward that goal.
She noted that extracting lithium in Sonora and other parts of the country is complicated because “in contrast to South America, it’s mixed with clay here.”
The Mexican Petroleum Institute and the National Council for Humanities, Science and Technology have developed methods to extract lithium from clay and LitioMx is looking at how those methods can be applied on a large scale, Sheinbaum said.
She also said that LitioMx is looking at how much lithium will cost to mine in Mexico.
“So we’re still working. … We’re going to continue supporting LitioMx,” Sheinbaum said without specifying any date when lithium mining in Mexico might commence.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
