At 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 4, in Milpa Alta, a woman called Mexico City police for help after discovering unconscious men at kilometer 29 of the Mexico-Oaxtepec highway. Three men were murdered, two of them decapitated.
Two days earlier, on June 2, in the Gustavo A. Madero borough, the door of a white van opened, and while the van was still moving, the body of a person wrapped in a white tarp was thrown from inside.
On Sunday, in the Chinampac de Juárez neighborhood of Iztapalapa, a man shot and killed two people in a direct attack on Avenida Telecomunicaciones.
These recent scenes are part of the extreme violence experienced in the nation’s capital, where serious crime is on the rise.
Pablo Vázquez, chief of the Mexico City police, insists that violence rates are under control and on the decline. However, the number of crime victims between January and April 2025 saw a slight increase compared to the same period in 2024.
Which crimes registered an increase in Mexico City?
Official figures from the Executive Secretariat of the Public Security System (SESNSP) indicate that in the first four months of 2025 there were 6,571 victims (including 15 criminal offenses), compared to 6,524 in the previous similar period.
However, serious crimes, such as homicide, kidnapping, extortion, and drug dealing, have registered increases so far this year (October-April) of between 2.9% and 300% compared to the same period in 2024.
Furthermore, from October 2024 to the present, there have been at least six cases of multiple homicides in the capital (with more than four victims in a single incident) and dozens of direct executions and attacks.
Who is being killed in Mexico City?
Among the victims are alleged criminals, but also congresswomen, lawyers, and officials such as Ximena Guzmán and José Muñoz, close collaborators of the mayor, who were murdered on May 20.
Francisco Rivas, director of the National Citizen Observatory, warned about the incidence of extortion, drug dealing, and disappearances, crimes that have grown steadily, and even atypically. “Crimes have migrated toward more effective ways of generating more resources and that pose less risk to criminals,” said Rivas.
Although authorities have intensified actions against crime, criminal groups have fragmented and reinvented themselves. In 2020, there were 40; today, there are 62.
Among them are drug trafficking groups with a national presence and even others, such as El Tren de Aragua, of Venezuelan origin.
Source: elfinanciero
