評論
打印
Books and arts
文藝板塊
Book review
書評
Gangs and governments
黑幫與政府
The monster and the boys
怪物和游擊隊員們
Two books explain how a street gang born in Los Angeles has wreaked havoc in Central America
通過兩本書解釋了誕生于洛杉磯的街頭黑幫是如何給中美洲造成了嚴重的破壞
MS-13. By Steven Dudley.
《野蠻薩爾瓦多人》作者：史蒂文·達德利
The Hollywood Kid. By Oscar Martinez
《好萊塢小子》，作者：奧斯卡·馬丁內斯
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has been “very tough” on the street gang MS-13—or so said Donald Trump 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 imprisoned leaders, granting perks in exchange for keeping murders down.
美國總統唐納德·特朗普去年就曾這樣說過，薩爾瓦多總統納伊布·布克爾對街頭黑幫“MS-13”的態度“非常強硬”。薩爾瓦多是世界上發生暴力事件最多的國家（除了敘利亞等沖突地區），實際上，自2015年以來，當地的謀殺案已經下降了80%。布克爾總統將這種改善歸因于政府對“MS-13”及其競爭對手“Barrio18”的打擊。但是薩爾瓦多新聞網站“ElFaro”在9月3日發布的監獄日志和情報報告也顯示了另一種解釋：15個月以來，布克爾政府一直在秘密地與“MS-13”幫派被監禁的領導人進行談判，給予他們額外待遇以換取謀殺案減少。
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 extorted 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 rivalry is itself their raison detre. Deal or no deal with Mr Bukele, tread on enemy turf and you get killed.
布克爾總統否認了這些報道。如果報道真實可靠的話，那么也只是在艱難澄清薩爾瓦多人民已經知道的一些事情：薩爾瓦多的街道由黑幫接管了，而不屬于政府。實際上，在薩爾瓦多（以及危地馬拉和洪都拉斯的大部分地區）的每個街區都會盤踞著一兩個黑幫團伙對市民進行敲詐勒索。他們從賣餡餅的小推車還有電信公司等敲詐租金，然后分給成千上萬名幫派成員。這樣的手段并不能使他們富有。相反，較量本身就是他們存在的理由。不論黑幫有沒有與布克爾總統進行交易，踏上敵人的地盤就會被殺。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
