PBS高端访谈:谁应该为萨尔瓦多的帮派暴力负责

 　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: Miguel Angel Gomez, a 30-year-old taxi driver here in El Salvador spends a lot of time looking in his rear-view mirror, worried that he'll be the next victim of a notoriously violent street gang that already murdered Miguel's brother.

　　A local news report showed the scene of the crime.

　　MIGUEL ANGEL GOMEZ: First they shot him and then they beheaded him. Here if they don't like you or for any little thing, they have you killed.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: Miguel says his brother was not part of a gang and has no idea why his brother was killed. But Miguel says gang members are now after him because they believe that he'll seek revenge.

　　What happens to you and your wife if you both stay here in El Salvador?

　　MIGUEL ANGEL GOMEZ: They will kill us.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: He and his wife are now planning to illegally cross the border into Texas, where they have relatives. Since last January more than 230,000 undocumented Central Americans, many of them children, have crossed into the United States fleeing violence perpetrated by gangs and drug cartels in countries like El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

　　With all the reporting about the current crisis, what's little understood is that the mass exodus¹ to the United States earlier this year was actually thirty years in the making. Fueled by American foreign policy decisions in the 1980's and an act of congress in the mid² 1990's.

　　AL VALDEZ: There are experts who say this is all Americans' fault and there are those who say it's not our fault because we're following the rules. And then there's people like me sort of on the fence.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: It all began in the early 1980's when El Salvador was in the midst of a brutal³ civil war. It was the height of the cold war and the Reagan administration, fearful of communist expansion in Central America supported the military-backed government with arms and financing. Seventy-five thousand were killed in the conflict, mostly at the hands of government forces. It's estimated that hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans fled their war-torn country seeking refuge in the United States.

　　AL VALDEZ: The mass exodus of Salvadorians to flee the conflict down there put a large population of Salvadorian immigrants in Los Angeles.

　　Al Valdez is a 28-year veteran of the police force in Orange County, California, who specialized⁴ in undercover field operations and headed the gang investigation⁵ unit for the Attorney General's office there. He explains that many of these Salvadoran families lived in poverty in the rough neighborhoods around downtown Los Angeles. Some of these new immigrants joined Latino gangs like 18th street gang and Mara Salvatrucha 13, or MS 13, for both protection and a livelihood⁷.

　　AL VALDEZ: Kids join gangs as a mechanism⁸ to survive. Now granted your life sucks, but at least you're alive and you have food and water, and you have protection.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: Many of those Salvadoran gang members ended up in California prisons. And this is where that act of congress comes in. Before 1996, only criminals convicted of violent felonies with sentences of five years or more could be deported¹⁰. But all that changed in 1996, when in an attempt to get tough on illegal immigration, congress passed a law allowing authorities to deport⁹ criminals if they had a prison sentence of just one year.

　　This led to the deportation¹² of 10s of thousands of gang members to Central America, many to El Salvador. Once they arrived they set up shop here and recruited local Salvadorans into the gangs. Many of the new recruits were teenagers who joined for the money and for the street cred. Others because they'd been threatened that if they refused to join, they'd be killed.

　　AL VALDEZ: Those countries, Central America, was ripe for a criminal culture to overtake it because of its severe poverty and the lack of opportunities, the corruption¹³ involved. It was like a Petri dish that you put an Ebola virus in it and it's going to grow like crazy.

　　CARLOS PONCE: We had a pretty, potentially grave crime problem represented by these gang members that are being deported and a very young police force that was going to have to deal with it.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: Carlos Ponce, a prominent Salvadoran crime analyst¹⁴ and former director of research for the national police force says the country was unprepared for this wave of gang members who had cut their teeth on the streets of Los Angeles. To make matters worse, Ponce says, when these deportations started U.S. authorities were providing no information about who was heading their way.

　　Wait a minute. So, the U.S. was deporting¹⁵ criminals without their criminal records?

　　CARLOS PONCE: Yeah. Yeah.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: You didn't know who was coming into the country?

　　CARLOS PONCE: We didn't know who was coming and you know, they were free to do as they pleased.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: While Ponce says that coordination¹⁶ with the United States has improved, deportations of gang members continue to this day.

　　So how much responsibility do you give the United States for the gang problem in El Salvador?

　　AL VALDEZ: I think the U.S. responsibility should've been, or could be, that we should advise the local officials in the countries of repatriation¹⁷ of exactly who we're sending back. That this guy was arrested for murder. He did time for murder. This guy was arrested for robbery. He's a sexual predator¹⁸. We're sending ‘em back. You need to have this data to make your country safe.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: Immigration and Customs Enforcement told us that, “The removal of known violent criminal gang members and foreign fugitives¹⁹ are among the agency's highest enforcement priorities. During the removal process, ICE works closely with foreign governments to … share all relevant information about individuals being returned, to include their criminal history.”

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: Were you a bad kid?

　　MANUEL FLORES: I was pretty bad. To this time now, I'm still bad.

　　32-year-old Manuel Flores, also known as “Sad Boy” by fellow gang members in Los Angeles was deported from a federal prison to El Salvador just about a two years ago. Flores recounted his days in rough South Central L.A.

　　MANUEL FLORES: Gangbang on the rival from a different hood⁶.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: Are you talking about violence?

　　MANUEL FLORES: Uh-huh.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: Beating people up?

　　MANUEL FLORES: Yeah.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: Shooting people? Killing²⁰ people?

　　MANUEL FLORES: Uh-huh.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: So you were involved with people who were killing other people?

　　MANUEL FLORES: Yeah. Yes.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: Flores's story embodies²¹ this 30-year cycle of violence that led to what President Obama called a humanitarian²² crises along the U.S.-Mexico border this past summer. When he was only 6-months old, he and his family fled the civil war in El Salvador. He grew up in L.A., became a gang member, was imprisoned²³ after stabbing someone in the neck and eventually deported back to El Salvador. Now he acknowledges that he is likely to resume his life of crime, crime that in part fueled last summer's mass migration¹¹.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: You want to go back to the streets?

　　MANUEL FLORES: If you want to make money for you and your people, I mean, you just go ahead and gangbang all your life.

　　CARLOS PONCE: The gang members are – stroll on the streets with their rifles showing. I mean, just out of the most exaggerated movie you can see about gangs in the most savage²⁴ country you can imagine. And that's why at the end people are leaving the country, because their families and their kids don't have a chance against this monster that has been growing and growing for the last few years.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: In a country of just 6 million, there are now a reported 7 murders a day according to the U.S. State Department and a recent survey conducted here found that one out four Salvadorans has considered leaving the country due to violence and the lack of economic opportunity.

　　People are fleeing the country because they are afraid of you. They're afraid of the gangs.

　　SANTIAGO: It's clear man. I accept that.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: This high-level member of the 18th street gang, who asked to be called “Santiago,” also agreed to talk with us. Santiago said he knows all about Salvadorans, many of them children, fleeing to the U.S. to escape criminals like him and he's just fine with that.

　　SANTIAGO: It doesn't bother me. You know why? Why wouldn't I want a child that will become a gang member here to leave the country? Let him pick up and go and get reunited with his mother in the U.S. and have access to a quality education.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: The Salvadoran authorities tell us they are doing all they can to stop the violence and keep their citizens from fleeing to the U.S. But they say they are up against it. Twenty thousand officers trying to battle 60 thousand gang members. A raid on 18th street gang members in a hilltop village by the anti-gang task force illustrates²⁵ the problem.

　　On a pitch black moonless night, we follow the officers into a wooded cliff-side area dotted with adobe²⁶ homes. Using battering²⁷ rams²⁸ the officers raided multiple residents simultaneously²⁹. Despite meticulously³⁰ planning the raid for two months, by the end of the evening police only arrested two of the ten suspected gang members they were looking for. Later they speculated that the gang members had been tipped off.

　　El Salvador's inability to defeat the gangs continues to fuel migration to the U.S., despite the 10s of millions of dollars a year the U.S. is now pouring into this Central American nation for both security and economic assistance. Remember taxi driver Miguel Angel Gomez, whose brother was decapitated by gang members? Lately, he says, they've been following him as he drives his taxi.

　　MIGUEL ANGEL GOMEZ: I feel that the more time passes, the closer they get.

　　JOHN CARLOS FREY: Which is why after requesting and being denied asylum³¹ in the United States, he's still planning to go to the U.S. illegally. He's not the only one in our story heading to America. Manuel Flores, the gang member the United States sent back to El Salvador says he planning to return, too.

1 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。

2 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

3 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

4 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

7 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

8 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

9 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

10 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

12 deportation   

n.驱逐，放逐

参考例句：

• The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
• Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前，英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。

13 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

14 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

15 deporting   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的现在分词 )；举止

参考例句：

16 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。

17 repatriation   

n.遣送回国，归国

参考例句：

• The Volrep programme is the preferred means of repatriation. 政府认为自愿遣返计划的遣返方法较为可取。 来自互联网
• Arrange the cargo claiming and maritime affairs,crews repatriation,medical treatment,traveling so on. （六）洽办货物理赔，船舶海事处理，办理船员遣返，就医，旅游等。 来自互联网

18 predator   

n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者

参考例句：

• The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
• Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。

19 fugitives   

n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Three fugitives from the prison are still at large. 三名逃犯仍然未被抓获。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Members of the provisional government were prisoners or fugitives. 临时政府的成员或被捕或逃亡。 来自演讲部分

20 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

21 embodies   

v.表现( embody的第三人称单数 )；象征；包括；包含

参考例句：

• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This document embodies the concern of the government for the deformity. 这个文件体现了政府对残疾人的关怀。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

22 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

23 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

24 savage   

adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人

参考例句：

• The poor man received a savage beating from the thugs.那可怜的人遭到暴徒的痛打。
• He has a savage temper.他脾气粗暴。

25 illustrates   

给…加插图( illustrate的第三人称单数 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明

参考例句：

• This historical novel illustrates the breaking up of feudal society in microcosm. 这部历史小说是走向崩溃的封建社会的缩影。
• Alfred Adler, a famous doctor, had an experience which illustrates this. 阿尔弗莱德 - 阿德勒是一位著名的医生，他有过可以说明这点的经历。 来自中级百科部分

26 adobe   

n.泥砖，土坯，美国Adobe公司

参考例句：

• They live in an adobe house.他们住在一间土坯屋里。
• Adobe bricks must drived dried completely before are used.土坯砖块使用前一定要完全干燥。

27 battering   

n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The film took a battering from critics in the US. 该影片在美国遭遇到批评家的猛烈抨击。
• He kept battering away at the door. 他接连不断地砸门。 来自《简明英汉词典》

28 rams   

n.公羊( ram的名词复数 )；(R-)白羊（星）座；夯；攻城槌v.夯实（土等）( ram的第三人称单数 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输

参考例句：

• A couple of rams are butting at each other. 两只羊正在用角互相抵触。 来自辞典例句
• More than anything the rams helped to break what should have been on interminable marriage. 那些牡羊比任何东西都更严重地加速了他们那本该天长地久的婚姻的破裂。 来自辞典例句

29 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

30 meticulously   

adv.过细地，异常细致地；无微不至；精心

参考例句：

• The hammer's silvery head was etched with holy runs and its haft was meticulously wrapped in blue leather. 锤子头是纯银制成的，雕刻着神圣符文，而握柄则被精心地包裹在蓝色的皮革中。 来自辞典例句
• She is always meticulously accurate in punctuation and spelling. 她的标点和拼写总是非常精确。 来自辞典例句

31 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。