Marcela Figueroa Franco, head of the National Public Security System, presented the latest homicide data at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Tuesday morning press conference.
Later in the press conference, Security Minister Omar García provided an update on arrests and the seizure of firearms and narcotics.
During her Q&A session with reporters, Sheinbaum responded to a question about why Mexico’s murder rate is trending down.
Homicides down 15.9% in first 7 months of 2025
Figueroa reported that there was an average of 69.7 homicides per day in Mexico between January and July.
The preliminary data figure represents a decrease of 15.9% compared to the average of 82.9 murders per day in the first seven months of 2024.
Figueroa highlighted that the average is the lowest for the first seven months of any year since 2016. The decline compared to the January-July period of 2020 is 27.8%.
Murders down 25.3% in July compared to last month of AMLO’s presidency
Figueroa also reported that there was an average of 64.9 homicides per day in July, a reduction of 25.3% compared to September, the final month of the six-year term of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
She noted that there were 22 fewer homicides per day in July than in September 2024.
Guanajuato leads the country for homicides
Data presented by Figueroa showed there were 14,769 homicides across Mexico in the first seven months of 2025.
More than half of those murders — 51.5% — occurred in just seven states.
- Guanajuato recorded 1,761 homicides between January and July, accounting for 11.9% of the national total.
- Chihuahua: 1,069 homicides (7.2% of the total)
- Sinaloa: 1,063 homicides (7.2%)
- Baja California: 1,052 homicides (7.1%)
- México state: 974 homicides (6.6%)
- Guerrero: 870 homicides (5.9%)
- Michoacán: 820 homicides (5.6%)
Mexico City ranked as the 12th most violent entity in terms of total homicides, with 508 between January and July. That figure was above the national average of 461.53 homicides per state in the first seven months of the year.
Eight states recorded 100 homicides or fewer. They were:
- Yucatán: 15 homicides
- Durango: 36 homicides
- Coahuila: 42 homicides
- Aguascalientes: 67 homicides
- Tlaxcala: 75 homicides
- Campeche: 75 homicides
- Baja California Sur: 79 homicides
- Querétaro: 100 homicides
Figueroa highlighted that the daily murder rate in Guanajuato was 60.7% lower in July than in February.
She noted that murders in Guanajuato began to decline after the arrest of a number of “generators of violence” — i.e., organized crime figures — in March.
More than 29,000 people detained since Oct. 1
Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said that “significant progress” in the fight against crime has been made since the current government took office on Oct. 1.
He said that more than 29,000 people have been arrested for high-impact crimes, “directly weakening criminal organizations.”
García Harfuch also said that authorities have seized 14,943 firearms and over 216 tonnes of drugs since Sheinbaum took office.
In addition, 1,262 methamphetamine laboratories have dismantled across 21 states, he said.
Sheinbaum: Homicides have declined due to national security strategy
Sheinbaum asserted that homicides have declined during her government due to the implementation of a new national security strategy.
“There is a strategy, there is monitoring of the strategy, timely monitoring municipality by municipality in some cases and state by state in other cases if the crime rates are lower,” she said.
“For example, we have 20 priority municipalities where the National Guard has a greater presence. Work is carried out in coordination with the mayor, or with the state governor,” Sheinbaum said.
She highlighted that the national security strategy has four key pillars, namely attention to the root causes of crime; strengthening of the National Guard; strengthening of intelligence and investigation practices; and enhanced coordination between governments of different levels.
“That is what has yielded this result,” she said, referring to the reduction in homicides.
“In 10 months, there is a reduction of homicide victims of 25.3%,” Sheinbaum said, referring to the decline between September 2024 and July 2025 rather than the annual reduction in the first seven months of the year.
“Of course, we need to continue working, but it’s a very important result, part of the permanent coordination we have [with state and municipal authorities]. So, the strategy works, but we have to keep working every day,” she said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
