It was a streak that no state wants: a new murder record year after year in neighboring Sonora. But now that streak has officially ended.

It’s hard to imagine that 1,744 murder victims in a single year in a sparsely populated state indicates anything positive. But in Sonora, that represented a nearly 10% drop from 2021’s figure of 1,930.

“After seven years of breaking records year after year, we have achieved an inflection point,” said Marco Antonio Paz, a spokesperson for the state’s citizens public security committee.

Some major cities saw even bigger drops, like the longstanding hotspot of Cajeme — home to the second largest city Ciudad Obregon — where murders fell nearly 16%. The capital Hermosillo’s drop was more than double that.

Perhaps the most troubling counterexample is Guaymas, where murders surged nearly 50%, and December alone saw 50 murder cases, more than all of 2018.