What actually happened in Loreto in 2025 and 2026, in plain numbers.
In 2025, Loreto, population 17,630, recorded 19 homicides. All of them happened between June and November, in a string of attacks between two factions of the same cartel over the local drug trade, and nearly everyone killed was part of that trade. That changed once. On November 19, gunmen attacked two houses in a residential neighborhood, away from the parts of town a visitor goes, and killed six people. Among them was a ten-year-old boy, who died alongside relatives the prosecutor’s office links to dealing. The gunmen were aiming at those two houses.
So far in 2026, January through July, Loreto has had 2 homicides, one in January and one in June. That works out to 11.3 per 100,000 people for those seven months. The page uses that per-100,000 rate throughout because it is the standard way to compare places of very different sizes.
As editors of this page, we live in Loreto with our kids. They bike to their classes and to the store on their own, and to the beach. In Mexico City neither they nor we felt safe with that.
Incidents as reported by Semanario ZETA (August 2025), La Jornada and Diario El Independiente (November 2025), citing the Baja California Sur prosecutor’s office. 2026 figures: SESNSP municipal open data, preliminary, cut-off July 31, 2026.
| Municipality | Population | Reported crimes per 100,000 | Homicide cases | Homicides per 100,000 | Robbery per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loreto | 17,630 | 3,346.6 | 19 | 107.8 | 419.7 |
| La Paz | 316,752 | 3,300.4 | 15 | 4.7 | 683.2 |
| Los Cabos | 409,232 | 2,675.3 | 21 | 5.1 | 618.7 |
| Mulegé | 67,360 | 1,878.0 | 15 | 22.3 | 262.8 |
| Comondú | 75,076 | 1,975.3 | 43 | 57.3 | 334.3 |
Nineteen homicides in a town of 17,630 works out to 107.8 per 100,000. If La Paz, population 316,752, had had the same 19, its rate would be 6.0. Robbery, the crime most likely to affect an ordinary visit, is lower in Loreto than in La Paz or Los Cabos. “Reported crimes” is every offense the state records, from fraud to homicide.
Source: Secretariado Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública (Mexico’s national public-security data agency), Incidencia delictiva del fuero común, municipal (IDM_NM_dic25.csv), January–December 2025; population: CONAPO 2024 projection as published in the Secretaría de Bienestar 2025 municipal fact sheets. Pulled September 1, 2026.
| City | Violent crime per 100,000 | Property crime per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 730.3 | 1,501.4 |
| Phoenix | 799.6 | 2,325.3 |
| Dallas | 658.2 | 3,351.9 |
Calgary reports a Crime Severity Index of 62.3 (Canada overall 77.9; lower is less severe) and 4,796 reported crimes per 100,000.
US cities report violent and property crime as two separate numbers. The Mexican table puts every offense, from fraud to homicide, into one number, so the totals cannot be lined up directly against the US or Calgary columns.
Sources: Los Angeles: FBI Crime Data Explorer, LAPD actuals, 2024 · Phoenix: OpenCrime.us (from FBI CDE/UCR), 2024 · Dallas: OpenCrime.us (from FBI CDE/UCR), 2024 · Calgary: Statistics Canada, police-reported Crime Severity Index by census metropolitan area, 2024.
Baja California Sur is at Level 2 of 4 on the State Department’s scale, where 1 is “exercise normal precautions” and 4 is “do not travel”: “Exercise increased caution”, issued August 12, 2025. The advisory names specific cities and regions in some states; it does not name Loreto. Read the advisory.
What Loreto HOY reported each morning, most recent first. Every edition links to its sources.