Mexico City Logs Fewest October Homicides in 29 Years
Mexico City had its fewest October homicides in 29 years, the city government said. Five straight monthly declines and other crime figures are covered.
Mexico City recorded its lowest number of homicides for any October in 29 years, Head of Government Clara Brugada said on Nov. 9 when she presented the city’s monthly security report. Both La Razón and Quadratín CDMX report that homicides have now fallen for five months in a row.
Brugada attributed the result to a steady pacification strategy. According to La Razón, she said the drop in killings means that lives are being saved.
The central figures
- Homicides are 53 percent lower than in 2019 and 20 percent lower than in 2024.
- High-impact crimes averaged 135 cases a day in 2019 and average 52 a day in the current period. La Razón says that is 83 fewer criminal incidents daily across the city’s 16 alcaldías (borough governments).
- The Fiscalía General de Justicia (the city attorney general’s office) brought 23 investment and real estate fraud cases to court, involving 931 million pesos, and carried out 139 arrest warrants in extortion cases.
- Quadratín reports 441 arrests for extortion.
- Under the city’s strategy against illegal land seizure, 324 properties were returned to owners or secured within 88 days, La Razón reports.
Vehicle theft, disappearances and perception of safety
The two outlets describe vehicle theft differently, so reports differ on the exact framing. La Razón says the city cited a 56 percent fall in vehicle theft over the past two years, and that half of violent thefts were avoided. Quadratín instead quotes a 56 percent reduction in vehicle theft with violence, along with a 29 percent decline in robberies in public spaces.
On missing persons, Quadratín says October brought 51 percent fewer disappearance reports than the same month of 2024. Both outlets give a 64 percent rise in the number of people located.
The perception of insecurity also fell, according to INEGI (Mexico’s national statistics institute). La Razón puts the decline at 9.8 percentage points in one year, while Quadratín writes 9.8 percent.
Police operations behind the report
La Razón says the SSC (Mexico City’s public security ministry) detained people for high-impact crimes, dismantled 50 criminal cells and seized firearms along with more than two tons of narcotics. Quadratín reports that Brugada counted preventive operations and outreach events and also cited detentions for high-impact crimes. Both outlets carry the same arrest figure, written in words in the original Spanish reports, so the count is not repeated here as a numeral.
Brugada also credited coordination among federal forces, the city police and the Fiscalía. To read the numbers by area yourself, see safe neighborhoods in Mexico City.
What this means for residents
All of the crime figures come from the city government’s own monthly report, while the perception numbers come from INEGI. The reported decline in high-impact crime covers all 16 alcaldías, and the city says robbery in public spaces and violent vehicle theft are both going down.
For people living in or moving to the capital, the daily averages give the clearest comparison: the city counts 52 high-impact incidents a day now, against 135 in 2019. Brugada said the strategy aims for a city with fewer crimes, less impunity and less fear.
The city government says it will continue working along eight lines of action. They include addressing social causes, police intelligence, neighborhood policing and a feminist approach to public security.
Sources: La Razón de México, Quadratín CDMX
