Lawyers among four executed in Mexico's Chiapas

Two lawyers were gunned down while driving in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on 10 December, it was suspected by organized crime, Proceso reported on 12 December. The website observed they had left a prison that day near the site of their assassination, on the road between the districts of Chiapa de Corzo and Acala; it reported two other execuctions on 9 December in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez. In northern Mexico, the army announced it would once again patrol the streets of Ciudad Juárez to back the police, two years after a similar measure was ended for its apparent unpopularity. The last government headed by Felipe Calderón withdrew troops from the city in 2010 after reports of abuse and rights violations by soldiers, with Federal Police taking over their duties, Proceso reported on 12 December. The head of the military guarrison in Juárez General Salvador Gutiérrez Plascencia, said military patrols would be temporary and confined to the city's periphery. He added troops would particularly look for military weaponry used by criminal gangs and seek to find how they obtained them.