New report says peacefulness in Mexico is improving: Wednesday’s mañanera recapped

Sheinbaum’s mañanera in 60 seconds

• 🕊️ Mexico Peace Index boost: A new report by the Institute for Economics & Peace found peacefulness in Mexico improved 5.1% in 2025, driven by a 22.7% drop in homicides. Sheinbaum credited her government’s security strategy, though the report cautioned that violence remains elevated relative to historical levels.
• 🇲🇽 AMLO gets credit too: Sheinbaum said the Peace Index confirms that Mexico’s long deterioration in peacefulness reversed after former President López Obrador took office in 2018. “[After] all the previous years of deterioration of peace in Mexico, peace began to be built from the arrival of President López Obrador,” she said.
• 🇺🇸 Trump isn’t the problem — his advisors are: Sheinbaum said she doesn’t believe Trump himself is pushing for U.S. intervention against Mexican cartels. Rather, presidential advisors are driving that pressure ahead of November’s U.S. midterms, she claimed.

Why today’s mañanera matters

At her Wednesday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum seized on a new report that states that “peacefulness” in Mexico improved markedly in 2025. The finding gave the president the opportunity to tout her government’s security strategy and the results it has achieved over the past 18 months. Sheinbaum focused on aspects of the report that serve her government’s narrative — i.e., that the security situation in Mexico has improved considerably in recent times.

Today’s mañanera was also significant as Sheinbaum revealed that she doesn’t believe that U.S. President Donald Trump is behind a push for the United States to take more forceful action against Mexican cartels, six of which were designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government last year. Rather, a small number of presidential advisors are the proponents of such action, she said.

Mexico Peace Index shows peacefulness improved 5.1% in 2025 

Sheinbaum highlighted that the recently released Mexico Peace Index 2026 report states that peacefulness in Mexico improved 5.1% in 2025.

She noted that the report states that the improvement in peacefulness in Mexico last year was the most significant in at least a decade.

Prepared annually by the Institute for Economics & Peace, a think tank based in Sydney, Australia, the report says that “the national improvement in peacefulness” in 2025 “was driven by a sharp reduction in homicides.”

“The homicide rate fell by 22.7 percent in 2025, representing nearly 7,000 fewer deaths compared to the previous year, the largest single-year decline on record,” the report states.

However, it also says that “despite this improvement, violence remains elevated relative to historical levels.”

“Mexico’s peace score is still worse than it was a decade ago, and long-term increases in firearms crime, organized crime, and gender-based violence continue to shape the country’s security landscape,” the report states.

The Mexico Peace Index is based on the Global Peace Index and includes 12 sub-indicators grouped into five major indicators: homicide; firearms crime; violent crime; organized crime; and fear of violence.

Sheinbaum: Construction of peace began when AMLO became president 

Later in her press conference, Sheinbaum said that the Mexico Peace Index report acknowledges that the trend of deteriorating peacefulness in Mexico changed after former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in late 2018.

“[After] all the previous years of deterioration of peace in Mexico, peace began to be built from the arrival of President López Obrador,” she said.

AMLO, as the former president is commonly known, implemented a so-called “hugs, not bullets” security strategy that prioritized addressing the root causes of crime over combating criminal groups with head-on force. While López Obrador’s six-year term was the most violent on record in Mexico in terms of homicides, murders did decline after reaching record highs early in AMLO’s presidency.

Sheinbaum highlighted that in her first full year in office, peacefulness in Mexico — as measured by the Mexico Peace Index — improved more than ever before.

“What does that mean? That there are results,” she said.

“That the [security] strategy we designed produces results,” added Sheinbaum, who frequently highlights the decline in homicides and other serious crimes during her administration.

The Mexico Peace Index 2026 report states that “early indications suggest that Mexico’s evolving security strategy may be contributing to recent gains [in peacefulness].”

“Since taking office in October 2024, the administration of Claudia Sheinbaum and its security leadership have placed a renewed emphasis on intelligence-led policing, institutional coordination, and targeted enforcement,” it says.

“There has also been a marked increase in arrests and detentions, reflected in a sharp rise in the incarcerated population during 2025. While these developments appear to have supported short-term reductions in high-impact crimes, their long-term effectiveness will depend on judicial capacity, due process, and broader institutional strengthening,” the report states.

Sheinbaum: Trump doesn’t want to intervene in Mexico

Even though Trump has said on various occasions that U.S. forces would, or could, take action against cartels in Mexico, and CIA agents allegedly participated in a drug lab raid in Chihuahua last month, Sheinbaum claimed that Trump himself is not pressing for U.S. intervention in Mexico.

Rather, “some people” who advise Trump are pushing for U.S. action in Mexico, she opined.

Given that midterm elections will take place in the United States in November, “they want to put Mexico in their elections,” Sheinbaum said.

“[It’s] a very electoral view of a few people [in Trump’s circle],” she said.

“No,” Sheinbaum continued, rejecting any attempt to use Mexico as a political issue in the U.S.

Sharpening her tone, the president added: “Mexico isn’t anyone’s piñata, and they’re not going to intervene in … [Mexico’s] elections in 2027 either. Mexicans decide here. That’s why I say today that the essence of what we’re living through today is the defense of sovereignty.”