Mexico’s Safest State Is Seeing a Real Estate Boom
Yucatán’s governor says supporting the local police is key to the low crime rate, which is boosting population and investment in the region.
The Plaza Mayor in Mérida, where investors are renovating old houses to rent to tourists.
Mexico’s lowest-crime region is strengthening its reputation as an oasis of calm in a country roiled by drug killings. Yucatán, the southeastern state known for its Mayan ruins, has a homicide rate more than 90% lower than the national average.
Governor Mauricio Vila says this is the fruit of relying on local police rather than just federal armed forces — paying them well, and giving them the technology they need, such as security cameras and machines to read license plates.
“The most important thing in any organization is its human capital,” said Vila, 43, in an interview in the state capital Mérida, making the case that Yucatán’s success was not merely the result of its history or geography.
The state’s low crime rate is helping fuel a real estate boom, attracting foreign investors and boosting the chances that Vila will run for president in elections next year. Meanwhile, the murder rate in Mexico as a whole has overtaken Colombia’s as organized crime groups fight to control smuggling routes to the US and the government’s crackdown has added to the violence.
Yucatán helps police with housing, health care, and university grants for their children, among other benefits that aren’t standard in Mexico, Vila said. This allows officers to see the force as a solid long-term career, which makes them more reliable, he added.
The base pay for an entry-level state police officer in Yucatán is 13,935 pesos ($790) per month. That’s above average, in a country where some security personnel in other states earn under 5,000 ($280) pesos.
Yucatán has boosted its security budget by more than 60% since Vila took office at the end of 2018, while the murder rate has fallen by 19%.
In 2022, it was the state with the fewest murders, with 39 out of the national total of more than 30,000. That’s fewer murders per capita than every US state except for New Hampshire and Maine.
