The rate of intentional homicides in Michoacán registered its lowest level in a decade until October of this year, but the Mayor of Uruapan was murdered and 80 percent perceive that the entity is unsafe.
Mexico City, November 15 (However).- Due to its location and agricultural wealth, Michoacán has suffered from the activity of drug trafficking cartels for decades and reached a record of murders with Silvano Aureoles as governor, in 2021. After his departure, there was a continuous decrease in these crimes, however, the murder of Mayor Carlos Manzo showed that a significant effort is still needed to pacify the entity, which 80 percent of the inhabitants perceive as unsafe.
According to INEGI data, between 1990 and 1996 – during the PRI six-year terms of Carlos Salinas and Ernesto Zedillo – Michoacán suffered an average of 1,226 murders per year.
By 1997, there was a significant drop, when 841 were registered. And then during the PAN governments of Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón, who began the so-called “war on drugs” in Michoacán while Lázaro Cárdenas Batel was governor, peaks were recorded such as those in 2006 and 2009, exceeding 900 murders.
But it is in 2016, after the emergence of self-defense groups and the failed actions of Enrique Peña Nieto’s government, that murders skyrocketed in the state, reaching 1,429.
The figure grew annually and during Aureoles’ government, violence tripled, reaching 2,677 murders in 2021. An increase of 206 percent during his administration.
Already with the Morenista Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla as governor, a decrease in murders began to be recorded, to count 1,631 in 2024. Compared to 2021, there was a reduction of 39 percent.
The INEGI builds its counts with data from the investigation folders of state prosecutors’ offices, but also from medical and death certificates. Its last update reaches 2024.
The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, on the other hand, focuses on the investigation folders of local prosecutors’ offices. However, its calculation of the homicide rate per 100 thousand inhabitants coincides with the trends shown by the INEGI.
And it allows us to have the data that with the security strategy of Claudia Sheinbaum’s government, homicides in Michoacán this year register their lowest level in a decade.
In 2025, according to data from the Secretariat Executive, the rate of victims of intentional homicide from January to October is 22.43 murders per 100 thousand inhabitants. The lowest level since 2015, when the rate was 20.32.
If you look at the absolute numbers, the period January-October 2025 is also the one with the lowest number of murders in Michoacán since 2015, with 1,132 intentional homicides recorded. During 2024 there was an average of 124 murders per month in the entity, and this year the average is 113 homicides per month.
The trend in Uruapan is similar. A peak of 261 murder cases in 2021, a drop to 187 in 2024 and from January to September of this year 104 intentional homicides.
Another available indicator is Army clashes in Michoacán. In 2011, during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón, there were 56, in which 84 alleged aggressors died, 5 were injured and another 44 were arrested, while two soldiers died. The fatality rate was 16.8 deaths for each injured.
By 2024, according to a response given by Sedena via transparency, the number of confrontations dropped to 50. As a result, 45 alleged aggressors died, 6 were injured and 35 were arrested. In these events, 6 soldiers died. The fatality rate was 7.5 deaths for each injured. Then, with Calderón in 2011, there was double the lethality.
During the PAN’s six-year term, in 2008, one of the most violent events against the civilian population in the history of Michoacán occurred, a grenade attack in the middle of the celebration of the Cry of Independence in Morelia, which left eight people dead and dozens injured.
Regarding missing persons, during Calderón’s six-year term the National Registry added 474 cases in Michoacán; in that of Enrique Peña Nieto, 1,464; in that of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, 3,816, and in the first year of Claudia Sheinbaum until November 11, there are 1,007 records of disappearances. Of the latter, 187 in Morelia and 74 in Uruapan, according to the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO).
Homicides have decreased since 2022… but fear and threats have grown
Another indicator, the National Survey of Victimization and Perception of Public Security (ENVIPE), also from INEGI, sample that at least until April of this year, 80.9 percent of the inhabitants considered Michoacán unsafe, a higher level than the 79.6 in 2024, and the 79.5 in 2021.
In 2011, the most violent year in Felipe Calderón’s six-year term, it was 76.1 percent.
At the municipal level, 65.3 percent perceived insecurity. An increase was also recorded in this indicator, compared to 62.2 percent in 2023 and 64 percent in 2024.
Also from INEGI, the ENSU survey Focused on cities and with data updated until September, it shows that in Uruapan 82.6 percent felt unsafe, ranking seventh among the cities with the most fear of crime.
The ENVIPE also measures the number of households in Michoacán where its members say they are victims of crime. In 2016, the highest level was recorded, at 26.5 percent. Then it dropped to 16.9 percent in 2021, and by 2024 it was 20.8 percent.
Although there is recent growth, they are lower levels than those recorded during Felipe Calderón’s six-year term.
Regarding extortion, the survey found that the highest levels were in the six-year terms of Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto. Then between 2023 and 2024 there was an increase, although the study highlights that in those same years the most important increase was in threats, going from a rate of 2,740 to a record of 4,273.
Data from the Executive Secretariat also show an increase in the number of victims of extortion, of people who do come to report in Michoacán, although according to the INEGI, out of fear, more than 95 percent prefer not to go to the authorities when they suffer an event of this type. In 2020 the Secretariat registered only 29 victims, and in 2024 there were 296:
After the assassination of the Mayor of Uruapan, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced a plan for peace and justice in Michoacán. Among other points, it includes the deployment of 10,506 elements of the Army and the National Guard to implement the Paricutin Operations Plan, in addition to the creation of Economic Development Poles for Well-being in Uruapan, and the modernization of the Lázaro Cárdenas Port.
“It is a comprehensive strategy that is based on a deep conviction: security is sustained with strategy, actions, justice, guaranteeing the rights of the people of Michoacán and the people of Mexico to education, health, access to housing, decent employment; that is, development with justice and well-being,” said President Sheinbaum.
“The Plan consists of 12 axes, with more than 100 actions, with an investment of more than 57 billion pesos, of which, an important part of them will be with mixed investment. In addition, in 2026, the investment in Wellbeing Programs is 37,450 million pesos, which will benefit about 1.5 million inhabitants,” he added.