Sheinbaum focused on reducing Mexico insecurity: Thursday’s mañanera recapped

Mexico’s security situation was a key focus of Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference on her 100th day as president.

Federal security officials presented a wide range of data, before the president underscored the government’s ongoing commitment to fighting crime and reducing insecurity.

Sheinbaum also expressed Mexico’s “solidarity” with Mexicans and “all residents” of areas of Los Angeles affected by wildfires, and acknowledged that a recent poll found she has a very high approval rating 100 days into her six-year presidency.

Homicide rate in December was the lowest of 2024 

Among the statistics presented by Marcela Figueroa Franco, head of the National Public Security System, were the following:

• There was an average of 82.1 homicide victims per day in 2024, an 18.3% reduction compared to 2018.
• There was an average of 72.8 homicide victims per day in December, the lowest rate of any month in 2024. The rate — which could be revised upward — represented a 16.3% decline compared to September, the final month of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidency.
• There were 30,057 homicides across Mexico in 2024.
• Almost half of those homicides (49.4%) occurred in just seven states: Guanajuato, Baja California, México state, Chihuahua, Jalisco, Guerrero and Nuevo León.
• There were 1.84 femicides per day in December (a total of 57), a 26.5% reduction compared to September.
• There were 25.42 reported acts of extortion per day in December (a total of 788), a decline of 10.6% compared to September.

Over 7,000 arrests for ‘high impact crimes’ since Sheinbaum took office 

After Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez outlined a range of ways in which the federal government is addressing the root causes of crime, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch provided an update on the positive results the national security strategy has achieved since Sheinbaum was sworn in as president.

Among the results García highlighted were:

• The arrest of 7,720 people for “high impact crimes,” including homicide, kidnapping, extortion and rape.
• The seizure of more than 66 tonnes of illicit drugs, including a large quantity of fentanyl.
• The confiscation of more than 3,600 firearms.

García said that “more than 60 million doses” of drugs “won’t reach the streets” as a result of the drug seizures and therefore “won’t be able to destroy the lives of families and young people.”

The security minister also highlighted that 43 “priority targets” have been arrested in Sinaloa, where Sinaloa Cartel infighting has claimed the lives of hundreds of people in recent months. An additional 558 alleged cartel members have been detained in the state during the current government, García said.

“In Sinaloa, a very significant effort has been made to reduce violence,” he said.

“… In Culiacán, specifically, the reduction in the crime of homicide from October to December was 35%,” García said.

Sheinbaum reveals the recipe for a high approval rating 

Toward the end of Thursday’s mañanera, a reporter noted that an El Universal newspaper poll found that Sheinbaum has a 77% approval rating. She asked the president whether she expected such a result and how she would maintain her high approval rating.

“Firstly, I want to thank the people of Mexico for this recognition,” Sheinbaum said. “Before anything else, one has to be grateful.”

Sheinbaum subsequently said that the keys to maintaining a high approval rating were to:

• “Be close to the people.”
• “Not betray” one’s principles.
• Keep one’s promises,
• “Work body and soul for the people of Mexico.”

Sheinbaum later said that she was less interested in her “individual approval” rating than “recognition of the project we represent” as a government — i.e. the so-called “fourth transformation” of Mexico initiated by former president López Obrador when he took office in late 2018.

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)