More than 500 soldiers are being sent to several Sonoran cities in the hopes of reducing record violence.

They’ll be heading to Cajeme, home to Sonora’s second-largest city Ciudad Obregon, Guaymas, the municipality that includes the beach town of San Carlos, and the capital, Hermosillo.

The move was welcomed by outgoing Sonoran Gov. Claudia Pavlovich, who acknowledged the challenge that reducing extreme violence in the state has proven to be and expressed hope that the deployment would help, according to a state release.

For several years, Cajeme has been the epicenter of violence in Sonora, accounting for roughly a third of murder cases since 2015, federal data analyzed by KJZZ show. But the situation has been worsening, with the cases through just June exceeding most complete years in that nearly six-year period. Guaymas has seen a similar surge, though Hermosillo saw a modest drop in 2020, and is on track for another this year.