Government claims national security strategy is working, but analysts say figures don’t show rise in forced disappearances
The average number of daily killings per month in Mexico has dropped by 37% since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office last year, according to new government figures, but security analysts cautioned that homicide data may not indicate improved national security.
There was an average of nearly 55 murders a day in November compared with almost 87 when Sheinbaum assumed the presidency in September last year, the head of the country’s national public security system, Marcela Figueroa Franco, said during the president’s daily news conference on Tuesday.
“The result in homicides that we’ve had over these months is very significant,” Sheinbaum said, adding that last month the lowest number of murders were recorded for any November in the past 10 years.
Violent cartel infighting, and the government’s heavily militarised efforts to take on the drug gangs, have made Mexico’s murder rate soar in recent years, reaching a peak of 36,773 killings in 2020, according to the country’s national statistics agency.
