Mexico Ends 2024 with Over 26,000 Homicides, Setting the Stage for a Grimmer 2025
The preliminary figures from Mexico’s attorney generals, revealed in the government’s Security Report, showed that the country closed 2024 with 26,715 homicides. This figure represents a slight increase compared to the same period in 2023, averaging around 70 daily homicides. However, experts warn that the final tally, to be delivered by the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) on January 20, is expected to surpass 80 daily homicides.
Between January and November 2024, a grim total of 39,631 victims were reported. Of these, 23,581 were intentional homicides and 16,050 were negligent homicides, with firearms being the primary weapon in most cases. As the clock struck midnight on December 31, Mexican prosecutors counted 69 homicides nationwide, with another 60 registered on January 1. States like Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Michoacán, and Veracruz topped the list of violent deaths. In Culiacán, Sinaloa’s capital, the new year began with a string of violent incidents, including five killings and three men found decapitated along the Culiacán – El Dorado highway.
May 2024 was the deadliest month of the year, with 4,021 cases reported. Colima led the list of states with the most homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, at 103.10, above the national average of 21.01. Following closely were Morelos (69.62), Baja California (53.91), Chihuahua (46.62), Guerrero (45.39), Guanajuato (43.92), and Sonora (43.03), among others. These staggering statistics do not even account for the more than 113,000 enforced disappearances, most of which have been connected to Mexico’s ongoing war on drugs, initiated in 2006 under former president Felipe Calderón.
come 2025, Mexico will implement a constitutional reform giving unprecedented powers to the Secretary of Public Security, Omar García Harfuch. These powers include coordinating the National Intelligence System, working in tandem with the Attorney General’s Office and the National Guard. The first test of these new abilities comes at the onset of the new year.
Mexico’s generalized violence also disproportionately affects women. According to the SESNSP, 733 women were killed between January and November. However, organizations dedicated to studying this issue, such as the Citizen National Observatory of Feminicide (OCNF), estimate that this number could be twice as high due to underreporting. In 2023, only 25% of female homicide cases were classified as femicides, out of a total of more than 3,000 women killed.
Despite the government’s claim of a 12% reduction in femicides compared to the same period in 2023, 12 states have seen an increase in these crimes. Since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office, 15,158 women have been killed violently. Nuevo León, Mexico State, and Mexico City have the highest concentration of these crimes in the first 11 months of 2024. However, several other states, such as Baja California Sur, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Coahuila, Baja California, Tabasco, and Guerrero, have also witnessed an increase in the investigation of femicides.
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