Oaxaca Homicides in Mexico: Prosecutor Links 70% in One Region to One Gang
MEXICO · SECURITY
Key Facts
- —The country Mexico, about 131 million people, had 27,989 homicides in 2025 against 33,550 in 2024, preliminary official data show.
- —Why it matters Oaxaca, a southern state, had 18 homicides per 100,000 people in 2025, below Mexico’s 21.4, official data show.
- —What happened On 28 September Oaxaca’s prosecutor linked about 70% of 957 Isthmus homicides over four years to Los Cromos.
- —The group Prosecutors say Los Cromos began as a local gang and later allied with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
- —What it means for you The seven municipalities named do not include Oaxaca city or the resort towns of Huatulco and Puerto Escondido.
- —Still open The prosecutor has not explained how the 70% estimate was reached, and no court has ruled on it.
Oaxaca homicides in one southern region are mostly linked to a single criminal group, the state’s chief prosecutor says. Bernardo Rodríguez Alamilla put the share at about 70% of 957 killings over four years on Monday 28 September.
The region is the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where Mexico narrows to a strip between the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. The prosecutor describes the group, Los Cromos, as allied with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
What the prosecutor said
Rodríguez Alamilla, Oaxaca’s attorney-general, spoke at a briefing on Operation Sable, a state and federal security push in the Isthmus. He said the region had recorded 957 intentional homicides in the last four years, ADN Sureste and NVI Noticias reported.
Of those Oaxaca homicides, about 70% are estimated to be related to Los Cromos, he said. Seventy percent of 957 would be about 670 killings, but the prosecutor gave only a percentage, not a count.
The published statements do not give an exact start date for the four-year period. They also do not say how each killing was matched to the group.
What “linked” means, and what it does not
The Spanish word used, relacionados, means related or linked, and it rests on criminal investigations. It is not a finding by any court that members of Los Cromos carried out those killings.
Rodríguez Alamilla himself stressed that the courts set the bar. “To carry out these arrests, we have to present the judge with a burden of proof,” he told reporters.
Who Los Cromos are
Los Cromos began as a local criminal organisation before allying with the CJNG, La Silla Rota reported. The CJNG takes its name from Jalisco, a state in western Mexico far from Oaxaca.
Prosecutors attribute extortion, protection payments, small-scale drug dealing, kidnapping and illegal weapons possession to the group, NVI Noticias reported. Prosecutors say it operates in seven municipalities: Juchitán, Tehuantepec, Salina Cruz, Ciudad Ixtepec, El Espinal, Magdalena Tequisistlán and Unión Hidalgo.
The authorities name a figure they call “Comandante Cromo” as one of the targets of their investigations. Reports differ on who leads the group.
Why the Isthmus matters beyond Oaxaca
A federal rail line crosses the Isthmus, linking the Pacific port of Salina Cruz with Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf of Mexico. Called the Interoceanic Corridor, it moved its first ocean-to-ocean shipment, 900 cars, in March 2025, Oaxaca’s state government reported.
Infobae reported that Los Cromos run extortion and people-smuggling networks in the Isthmus, where the navy leads Operation Sable. That ties a local security problem to a route Oaxaca’s government promotes as a trade link between two oceans.
The arrest of Juchitán’s mayor
The most prominent detainee is Miguel Sánchez Altamirano, the mayor of Juchitán de Zaragoza, arrested on Wednesday 23 September. La Jornada described him as a member of Morena, the party that governs Mexico and Oaxaca.
Prosecutors accuse him of aggravated extortion and crimes against state security, La Jornada reported. They also allege that he gave Los Cromos political and financial cover.
A judge ordered him held in pre-trial detention at the Altiplano federal prison, El Imparcial de Oaxaca reported. The town’s former security commissioner was also detained, according to Proceso.
Governor Salomón Jara asked the state congress on Friday 25 September to dissolve Juchitán’s town council, El Financiero reported. The congress approved the request unanimously, by 35 votes to none, on Saturday 26 September, La Jornada reported.
Jara said it pained him when a Morena official “trades his mission for ambition”, Diario de Yucatán reported. The same paper, citing Reforma, reported that the mayor and the governor had coordinated security actions for months.
Operation Sable and the security response
Operation Sable has drawn on more than 11 months of intelligence work and led to over 250 arrests, the prosecutor said. It involves the army, the navy, the National Guard, the federal security ministry and Oaxaca’s state police.
Rodríguez Alamilla said the group had grown stronger but was now being eroded by the arrests. He said six more investigation files are open against municipal officials across Oaxaca, whose names remain confidential.
In Juchitán, the state police will take over public security, Jara said, El Universal reported on 24 September. A separate state peace plan for the town had produced 219 arrests by July, Proceso reported, citing the Oaxaca government.
It is not clear how far those arrests overlap with the 250 under Operation Sable. Nor is it known how many of the detainees have been convicted.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said the mayor’s arrest came from an investigation that was already under way, Infobae reported. Not everyone in Juchitán welcomed it: supporters of the mayor blocked roads in five places, La Jornada reported.
How the region compares with Mexico
Nationally, official figures show violence falling, a claim examined in What Mexico’s 53% Homicide Drop Figure Leaves Out. The SESNSP, the federal office that compiles crime reports, counted an average of 40.8 intentional homicides a day in August 2026.
That was 53% below the 86.9 a day of September 2024, the month before Sheinbaum took office, Proceso reported. Divided by August’s national average, 957 killings equal about 23 days of homicides across Mexico.
INEGI, the national statistics institute, put 2025’s presumed homicides at 27,989 in preliminary death records, against 33,550 in 2024. Its 3 August report put Oaxaca at 767, or 18 per 100,000 people.
Oaxaca homicides have moved against the national trend this year, though. SESNSP data showed 230 victims in the state in the first quarter of 2026, against 197 a year earlier, Infobae reported.
In Juchitán, recorded homicides rose from 46 in 2021 to 83 in 2025, SESNSP data cited by La Razón show. The increase came during the arrested mayor’s time in office, the newspaper noted.
Critics question what the numbers show
México Evalúa, a Mexico City think tank, warns that falling homicide counts do not tell the whole story. In May it argued that criminal groups may be “administering” violence rather than reducing it, the Sonora daily El Imparcial reported.
The same report noted that Mexico’s official register then listed more than 133,000 missing people. In an Excélsior column on 24 September, Luis de la Barreda argued that this changes the picture.
Counting the disappeared, he estimated, would lift the homicide rate from 21 to 31 per 100,000. That is his own calculation, not an official figure.
Heriberto Ruiz Ponce, an academic at Oaxaca’s state university, said in comments carried by Infobae that crime there had long been low. He said much more attention must be paid “above all to the social breakdown there has been”.
Daily life in the region has adapted to the pressure. A rancher in La Ventosa told Proceso that men buy his cattle every week, and “with them we don’t fight or argue”.
What comes next
A judge will decide at 11:00 Oaxaca time on Tuesday 29 September whether to open formal criminal proceedings against the mayor. The former security commissioner’s hearing is set for Wednesday 30 September, and both cases will test the prosecutor’s evidence.
Juchitán will be run for now by a state-appointed commissioner, Francisco Vásquez Jiménez, founder of the town’s fire service. President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday 28 September that he belongs to no political party, Infobae reported.
The 70% figure does not mean that about 670 killings have been proven against one group. It is an estimate drawn from open investigations, and no court has tested it.
Nor does it describe Oaxaca homicides as a whole. The seven municipalities named are in the Isthmus, not in Oaxaca city or the resort towns of Huatulco and Puerto Escondido.
Operation Sable continues, and the prosecutor says each arrest must rest on evidence a judge accepts. The monthly SESNSP figures will show whether killings in the Isthmus start to fall.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are Los Cromos?
A criminal group in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico. It began as a local gang and is described by prosecutors and Mexican media as allied with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Does the 70% figure mean those killings are solved?
No. It is the Oaxaca prosecutor’s estimate, based on open investigations. No court has ruled on the cases behind it.
Are Oaxaca homicides rising?
Oaxaca’s rate of 18 per 100,000 people in 2025 was below Mexico’s 21.4, according to INEGI. But SESNSP data showed 230 victims in the first quarter of 2026, up from 197 a year earlier.
Does this affect Oaxaca city and the beach resorts?
The seven municipalities named are in the Isthmus, not in Oaxaca city, Huatulco or Puerto Escondido. Travellers can check their own government’s travel advice, which for Mexico is often given state by state.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
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