評論
打印
The Americas
美洲版塊
Bello
引發戰爭
Murder in the Amazon
亞馬遜謀殺案
A double slaying reminds Brazilians how much their President scorns greens.
雙人被殺提醒巴西人，他們的總統是多么鄙視綠黨。
Fly from Europe to Peru and you make landfall over Guyana.
從歐洲飛到秘魯，在圭亞那降落。
For almost five hours you then fly over a dark green carpet festooned with serpentine rivers, some a muddy brown, others inky black.
在近五個小時中，你會在一條墨綠色的地毯上飛行，地毯上點綴著蜿蜒的河流，有些是渾濁的棕色，有些是墨黑色的。
Such, still, is the vastness of the Amazon rainforest.
這就是亞馬遜雨林的遼闊。
Yet this aerial view is deceptive.
然而，這種鳥瞰是具有欺騙性的。
At ground level large swathes of the forest have been eaten away.
在地面上，大片的森林已經被侵蝕殆盡。
It is an assault that began centuries ago, as colonists pushed up the rivers.
這是一場始于幾個世紀前的侵略，當時殖民者們正在向上游推進。
Since the 1960s it has gathered pace, accelerated by the chainsaw, the bulldozer and the building of highways.
自20世紀60年代以來，隨著電鋸、推土機和高速公路的修建，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 indigenous tribes on the one hand, and ranchers, farmers, loggers and garimpeiros (wildcat miners) on the other.
爭論的焦點是對該地區經濟發展或環境保護的兩種截然相反的看法，以及兩類人：一方面是大多數土著部落，另一方面是牧場主、農民、伐木者和非法淘金者(非法礦工)。
Now this conflict has reached even the most hidden areas of the Amazon, as the murders earlier this month of Bruno Pereira, an adviser to indigenous tribes, and Dom Phillips, a British journalist, make clear.
本月早些時候，當地部落顧問布魯諾·佩雷拉(Bruno Pereira)和英國記者多姆·菲利普斯(Dom Phillips)被謀殺，這表明這場沖突甚至波及到了亞馬遜最隱秘的地區。
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 isolation.
根據巴西聯邦警察的說法，他們在查瓦利山谷進行考察后，乘船返回時被槍殺的。查瓦利山谷面積相當于奧地利，靠近秘魯邊境，居住著16個與世隔絕的部落。
The police say their killers were illegal fishermen, three of whom have been arrested.
警方表示，兇手是非法漁民，其中三人已被逮捕。
The pair are far from the first defenders of the forest to die violently.
這兩個人完全不是第一批死于暴力的森林守衛者。
In 1988 the murder of Chico Mendes, the leader of a rubber-tappers’ union in Acre, to the south of the Javari, caused international outrage.
1988年，查瓦利山谷南部阿克里的橡膠采集者工會領袖奇科·門德斯被謀殺，引起了國際社會的憤怒。
His killers were the sons of a rancher who wanted the union’s land.
殺害他的是一位想要聯邦土地的牧場主的兒子。
Mendes’s death contributed to far-reaching changes of policy in Brazil, coinciding with the country’s democratic constitution of 1988.
門德斯的去世對巴西政策的深遠變化做出了貢獻，恰逢該國1988年的民主憲法出臺。
Governments banned wildcat mining, set aside large chunks of the forest as indigenous reserves or national parks, and stepped up enforcement of laws against deforestation.
各國政府禁止非法開采，將大片森林留作土著保護區或國家公園，并加大了禁止砍伐森林的法律執行力度。
This change peaked under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his environment minister of 2003-08, Marina Silva, who had worked with Mendes.
這一變化在路易斯·伊納西奧·盧拉·達席爾瓦和2003-2008環境部長瑪麗娜·席爾瓦的領導下達到頂峰，瑪麗娜曾與門德斯共事。
