The decrease in intentional homicides, highlighted by the Secretary of Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, occurs when the events between 2019 and 2022 are compared. In the first full year of the current administration, 36,661 violent deaths were registered, while this year it is projected to conclude with less than 33,000, which would represent the lowest number of the current administration.
However, security experts affirm that the most violent years have been experienced under the government of President López Obrador.
“There is apparently a reduction in homicides in the registry if we compare last year and the previous year. The worst year in terms of homicides was 2019, from then on, between 2019 and 2020, practically nothing changed, there was a reduction of just 0.4% in victims, it really is absolutely nothing because it could fit within the margin of error . In 2020 and 2021 there was a reduction of 3.4%, which is also minimal if we consider that we come from the two worst years for homicide. So far in 2022, there is a reduction of 8.9%, but it is too soon to say that we are in a better condition,” Rivas stated.
When intentional homicides in the last year of President Enrique Peña Nieto are compared with the first year of López Obrador, the decrease was minimal: 24 homicides that represents 0.06%; in 2020 there was an increase of 1,088 crimes that represent .2% more. In 2021 there were 985 fewer homicides, which represented a reduction of 2.6%.
Despite this drop, experts affirm that the current government is falling behind, since the president’s promise was that in the first three years there would be a reduction of between 30 and 50% in intentional homicides, which has not happened .
“That is the real goal at this time and as long as we do not present the work plan, it is obviously of a preliminary nature,” Alfonso Durazo announced in August 2018, then proposed as Secretary of Public Security, a position he resigned to compete for the governorship of sound.
Hernández points out that the slight reduction in homicides is just a sign that President López Obrador’s security strategy has failed because he did not even create the National Guard, deploying thousands of soldiers and spending millions of resources violence does not subside as intended.
“If the only thing this government can boast about is a small reduction in homicides after spending billions of dollars, sending thousands of soldiers, the diagnosis is clear, the militarization of public security has failed as it did for two other six-year terms.” holds.
