In response to ongoing violence in neighboring Sonora, Mexico, the country’s president says the Navy will help lead a security response.

In keeping with his administration’s use of military forces to address rising murder rates in Sonora, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said this week that the Navy is taking on the challenge of security in the region.

"We're carrying out something special there," he said, adding that the head of the Mexican Navy is traveling to Sonora to work with Gov. Alfonso Durazo.

This administration has relied heavily on the military in response to violence in Sonora.

In 2019, Durazo, who was serving as national security secretary at the time, implemented a pilot project put military officials in charge of five local police forces in an effort to root out corruption. Since then the federal government has continued to increase Navy and national guard presence in the state — a strategy some security watchdog groups say isn’t working and may be worsening the situation.