2006年VOA标准英语-Families of US Citizens Missing in Mexico Seek

By Greg Flakus
Laredo, Texas
09 October 2006

For the most part life along the 3,000 kilometer border between the United States and Mexico is peaceful and orderly, with billions of dollars in commerce flowing both ways every year. But drug trafficking and other crimes are also flourishing on the border and there have been several incidents in which U.S. citizens visiting Mexico were either killed or injured by criminals. There are also dozens of cases of U.S. citizens who crossed over the border never to be seen again. VOA's Greg Flakus visited with the families of some of the disappeared and filed this report from Laredo, Texas.

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Families of US citizens missing in Mexico  
  
At a home in a quiet neighborhood in Laredo, a group of desperate and distraught people sit down together to share information and seek mutual¹ support. They are family members of people who went over the nearby border, into the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo, and never returned.

Out of the 40-some cases in which U.S. citizens vanished without a trace in the area, one of the most publicized is that of two young, attractive women who went to a late-night concert on the Mexican side and have not been seen since. Two years ago, Brenda Cisneros and her friend Yvette Martinez went over the border to celebrate Brenda's 23rd birthday. A few hours later, they spoke² to a friend on a cell phone and said they were close to the international bridge and would be home soon. But they never returned.

Brenda's father, Pablo Cisneros, says his heart aches for his daughter and that he wants to see her again before his days on earth are over.

Pablo says he and the stepfather of Yvette Martinez found her car in a Nuevo Laredo police yard, even though police officials had told him that they had no information about the two young women. He says the police there all work for criminal organizations.

Brenda's mother, Priscilla Cisneros, says she does not care who took her daughter or why, she has no interest in reprisal³, she only wants her only daughter back.

Most of the people in the family support group are Mexican-Americans who speak fluent Spanish and, in many cases, have relatives in Mexico or other ties across the border. But they say neither the U.S. nor Mexican governments have helped much.

 
Raul Salinas  
  
The families of the disappeared have gotten moral support from Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas, a former FBI agent. But he says there is little he can do. "We don't have any authority, you know, in Mexico. We can go over there as visitors and we can ask and try to get their cooperation, but it is a different country. We have to abide⁴ by their laws. I cannot go tramping into Mexico and start conducting investigations," he explained.

Mexican President Vicente Fox has sent hundreds of federal agents and even army troops to Nuevo Laredo to quell⁵ violence and crime there, but they have not found the missing U.S. citizens.

At a recent bilateral⁶ meeting of U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials held in Laredo, both sides pledged increased cooperation in the fight against criminal gangs. But the families of the disappeared remain distraught. 

Danielle Ortiz  
  
Danielle Ortiz, whose husband is among the missing, notes that much attention is focused on identifying the bodies of Mexican immigrants who die trying to cross illegally into the United States so that the remains⁷ can be returned to the families. She says she would like to see a similar effort to identify bodies authorities have found in Mexico.

The families of Laredo's disappeared have banded together to seek public help. They operate a Web site on the Internet called Laredo's Missing-dot-com, through which they provide photos and information about their lost loved ones.

They are not alone in their misery⁸, however. They say they know of around 400 cases of Mexicans who have disappeared in recent years and their families feel the same pain, not knowing if their sons, daughters or spouses⁹ are alive or dead or if they will ever be found.

1 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 reprisal   

n.报复，报仇，报复性劫掠

参考例句：

• There is no political alternative but a big reprisal.政治上没有旁的选择只能是大规模报复。
• They bombed civilian targets in reprisal.他们炮轰平民目标作为报复。

4 abide   

vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受

参考例句：

• You must abide by the results of your mistakes.你必须承担你的错误所造成的后果。
• If you join the club,you have to abide by its rules.如果你参加俱乐部，你就得遵守它的规章。

5 quell   

v.压制，平息，减轻

参考例句：

• Soldiers were sent in to quell the riots.士兵们被派去平息骚乱。
• The armed force had to be called out to quell violence.不得不出动军队来镇压暴力行动。

6 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

9 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句