2022年经济学人 亚马逊原始部落谋杀案真相揭秘(1)

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The Americas

美洲版块

Bello

引发战争

Murder in the Amazon

亚马逊谋杀案

A double slaying¹ reminds Brazilians how much their President scorns greens.

双人被杀提醒巴西人，他们的总统是多么鄙视绿党。

Fly from Europe to Peru and you make landfall over Guyana.

从欧洲飞到秘鲁，在圭亚那降落。

For almost five hours you then fly over a dark green carpet festooned with serpentine² rivers, some a muddy brown, others inky black.

在近五个小时中，你会在一条墨绿色的地毯上飞行，地毯上点缀着蜿蜒的河流，有些是浑浊的棕色，有些是墨黑色的。

Such, still, is the vastness of the Amazon rainforest.

这就是亚马逊雨林的辽阔。

Yet this aerial view is deceptive³.

然而，这种鸟瞰是具有欺骗性的。

At ground level large swathes of the forest have been eaten away.

在地面上，大片的森林已经被侵蚀殆尽。

It is an assault that began centuries ago, as colonists⁴ pushed up the rivers.

这是一场始于几个世纪前的侵略，当时殖民者们正在向上游推进。

Since the 1960s it has gathered pace, accelerated by the chainsaw, the bulldozer and the building of highways.

自20世纪60年代以来，随着电锯、推土机和高速公路的修建，它加快了步伐。

At issue are two opposing visions for the region, of economic development or of environmental protection, and two groups of people: most indigenous⁵ tribes on the one hand, and ranchers, farmers, loggers and garimpeiros (wildcat miners) on the other.

争论的焦点是对该地区经济发展或环境保护的两种截然相反的看法，以及两类人：一方面是大多数土著部落，另一方面是牧场主、农民、伐木者和非法淘金者(非法矿工)。

Now this conflict has reached even the most hidden areas of the Amazon, as the murders earlier this month of Bruno Pereira, an adviser⁶ to indigenous tribes, and Dom Phillips, a British journalist, make clear.

本月早些时候，当地部落顾问布鲁诺·佩雷拉(Bruno Pereira)和英国记者多姆·菲利普斯(Dom Phillips)被谋杀，这表明这场冲突甚至波及到了亚马逊最隐秘的地区。

According to Brazil’s federal police they were shot dead as they were returning by boat from a research trip in the valley of the Javari, a territory the size of Austria close to the border with Peru that is home to 16 tribes living in isolation⁷.

根据巴西联邦警察的说法，他们在查瓦利山谷进行考察后，乘船返回时被枪杀的。查瓦利山谷面积相当于奥地利，靠近秘鲁边境，居住着16个与世隔绝的部落。

The police say their killers⁸ were illegal fishermen, three of whom have been arrested.

警方表示，凶手是非法渔民，其中三人已被逮捕。

The pair are far from the first defenders⁹ of the forest to die violently.

这两个人完全不是第一批死于暴力的森林守卫者。

In 1988 the murder of Chico Mendes, the leader of a rubber-tappers’ union in Acre, to the south of the Javari, caused international outrage¹⁰.

1988年，查瓦利山谷南部阿克里的橡胶采集者工会领袖奇科·门德斯被谋杀，引起了国际社会的愤怒。

His killers were the sons of a rancher who wanted the union’s land.

杀害他的是一位想要联邦土地的牧场主的儿子。

Mendes’s death contributed to far-reaching changes of policy in Brazil, coinciding with the country’s democratic constitution of 1988.

门德斯的去世对巴西政策的深远变化做出了贡献，恰逢该国1988年的民主宪法出台。

Governments banned wildcat mining, set aside large chunks¹¹ of the forest as indigenous reserves or national parks, and stepped up enforcement of laws against deforestation.

各国政府禁止非法开采，将大片森林留作土著保护区或国家公园，并加大了禁止砍伐森林的法律执行力度。

This change peaked under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his environment minister of 2003-08, Marina Silva, who had worked with Mendes.

这一变化在路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦和环境部长玛丽娜·席尔瓦的领导下达到顶峰，玛丽娜曾在2003-2008年间与门德斯共事。

1 slaying   

杀戮。

参考例句：

• The man mimed the slaying of an enemy. 此人比手划脚地表演砍死一个敌人的情况。
• He is suspected of having been an accomplice in the slaying,butthey can't pin it on him. 他有嫌疑曾参与该杀人案，但他们找不到证据来指控他。

2 serpentine   

adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的

参考例句：

• One part of the Serpentine is kept for swimmers.蜿蜒河的一段划为游泳区。
• Tremolite laths and serpentine minerals are present in places.有的地方出现透闪石板条及蛇纹石。

3 deceptive   

adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• His appearance was deceptive.他的外表带有欺骗性。
• The storyline is deceptively simple.故事情节看似简单，其实不然。

4 colonists   

n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Colonists from Europe populated many parts of the Americas. 欧洲的殖民者移居到了美洲的许多地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some of the early colonists were cruel to the native population. 有些早期移居殖民地的人对当地居民很残忍。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

6 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

7 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

8 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

9 defenders   

n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者

参考例句：

• The defenders were outnumbered and had to give in. 抵抗者寡不敌众，只能投降。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• After hard fighting,the defenders were still masters of the city. 守军经过奋战仍然控制着城市。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

11 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？