2020年经济学人 黑帮VS政府(1)

Books and arts

文艺板块

Book review

书评

Gangs and governments

黑帮与政府

The monster and the boys

怪物和游击队员们

Two books explain how a street gang born in Los Angeles has wreaked¹ havoc² in Central America

通过两本书解释了诞生于洛杉矶的街头黑帮是如何给中美洲造成了严重的破坏

MS-13. By Steven Dudley.

《野蛮萨尔瓦多人》作者：史蒂文·达德利

The Hollywood Kid. By Oscar Martinez

《好莱坞小子》，作者：奥斯卡·马丁内斯

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has been “very tough” on the street gang MS-13—or so said Donald Trump³ last year. Murders have indeed fallen 80% since 2015, when El Salvador was the most violent country in the world (apart from conflict zones such as Syria). Mr Bukele attributes the improvement to a crackdown on MS-13 and its rival, Barrio18. But prison logs and intelligence reports published on September 3rd by El Faro, a Salvadorean news site, suggest another explanation: that for 15 months Mr Bukele’s government has secretly negotiated with MS-13’s imprisoned⁴ leaders, granting perks⁵ in exchange for keeping murders down.

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普去年就曾这样说过，萨尔瓦多总统纳伊布·布克尔对街头黑帮“MS-13”的态度“非常强硬”。萨尔瓦多是世界上发生暴力事件最多的国家（除了叙利亚等冲突地区），实际上，自2015年以来，当地的谋杀案已经下降了80%。布克尔总统将这种改善归因于政府对“MS-13”及其竞争对手“Barrio18”的打击。但是萨尔瓦多新闻网站“ElFaro”在9月3日发布的监狱日志和情报报告也显示了另一种解释：15个月以来，布克尔政府一直在秘密地与“MS-13”帮派被监禁的领导人进行谈判，给予他们额外待遇以换取谋杀案减少。

Mr Bukele denies the reports. If true, they make painfully clear something Salvadoreans already know: the streets belong to the gangs, not the government. Practically every city block in El Salvador (and much of Guatemala and Honduras) is extorted⁶ by one or both of the gangs. La renta is squeezed out of tortilla carts and telecoms firms alike, then split among tens of thousands of members. It doesn’t make them rich. Rather, their rivalry⁷ is itself their raison detre. Deal or no deal with Mr Bukele, tread on enemy turf and you get killed.

布克尔总统否认了这些报道。如果报道真实可靠的话，那么也只是在艰难澄清萨尔瓦多人民已经知道的一些事情：萨尔瓦多的街道由黑帮接管了，而不属于政府。实际上，在萨尔瓦多（以及危地马拉和洪都拉斯的大部分地区）的每个街区都会盘踞着一两个黑帮团伙对市民进行敲诈勒索。他们从卖馅饼的小推车还有电信公司等敲诈租金，然后分给成千上万名帮派成员。这样的手段并不能使他们富有。相反，较量本身就是他们存在的理由。不论黑帮有没有与布克尔总统进行交易，踏上敌人的地盘就会被杀。

1 wreaked   

诉诸（武力），施行（暴力），发（脾气）( wreak的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city. 地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• They have wreaked dreadful havoc among the wildlife by shooting and trapping. 他们射杀和诱捕野生动物，造成了严重的破坏。

2 havoc   

n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city.地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• This concentration of airborne firepower wrought havoc with the enemy forces.这次机载火力的集中攻击给敌军造成很大破坏。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 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。

5 perks   

额外津贴，附带福利，外快( perk的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Perks offered by the firm include a car and free health insurance. 公司给予的额外待遇包括一辆汽车和免费健康保险。
• Are there any perks that go with your job? 你的工作有什么津贴吗？

6 extorted   

v.敲诈( extort的过去式和过去分词 )；曲解

参考例句：

• The gang extorted money from over 30 local businesses. 这帮歹徒向当地30多户商家勒索过钱财。
• He extorted a promise from me. 他硬要我答应。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 rivalry   

n.竞争，竞赛，对抗

参考例句：

• The quarrel originated in rivalry between the two families.这次争吵是两家不和引起的。
• He had a lot of rivalry with his brothers and sisters.他和兄弟姐妹间经常较劲。