美国国家公共电台 NPR Grieving LeBaron Family Wants U.S. To Designate Mexican Cartels As Terrorists

Grieving LeBaron Family Wants U.S. To Designate Mexican Cartels As Terrorists

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

It's been a month since the brutal¹ massacre² of nine women and children in northern Mexico. They were all dual³ U.S.-Mexican citizens, members of the extended LeBaron family. Since then, the family has been on a mission, urging the U.S. government to get more involved in a fight against drug cartels that are responsible for violence across Mexico.

BRIAN LEBARON: It's hard for the Mexican government to compete with that kind of finance and that kind of firepower. This is going to take an international response or we have no hope.

SHAPIRO: That's Brian LeBaron (ph), a cousin of the victims. He was here in Washington this week, along with other members of the LeBaron family, to meet with members of Congress. And they sat down for an interview with NPR's Joel Rose, who's here in the studio.

Hi, Joel.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE⁴: Hey, Ari.

SHAPIRO: So you met with five members of the LeBaron family. Tell us about them.

ROSE: Yeah. Members of this family have been living in northern Mexico for generations since they split off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah, though they still consider themselves Mormons. I talked to the parents and sister of Rhonita Miller⁵ LeBaron. She was killed in the attack along with four of her children.

SHAPIRO: And I am sure this was a really painful interview for them to do.

ROSE: Yeah, emotions are still very raw, as I think you're going to hear in the tape. And a warning to listeners that some of this may be very difficult to listen to. But the family says you have to hear the gruesome details of this attack in order to really understand the point they're making. Rhonita's mother, Shalom LeBaron Tucker, talked about the moment that she saw the bullet-ridden car and the burned-up remains⁶ of her daughter and grandchildren.

SHALOM LEBARON TUCKER: When we got to where my daughter was, I got out of the car and went over there. And my grandson that was in the passenger side, 12 years old, tried to get out of the car and escape. And my granddaughter that was 10 - face down, crunched⁷ up in fetal position 'cause she was so afraid. But that's how her bones were found.

SHAPIRO: Joel, why do they think this happened? Do they believe the family was targeted by the cartel?

ROSE: I put that question to Adrian LeBaron, who's sort of the patriarch of the family and who lost his daughter and four grandchildren in the attack.

ADRIAN LEBARON: They want the gringos out of there, to being in control of all that area. That's my absolute conclusion.

ROSE: And this gets to the heart of why the family is in Washington this week because they want to make the case that these cartels operate like terrorists. Here's Frank LeBaron, a cousin who lives in Utah.

FRANK LEBARON: They did it to cause terror because that's how they control things, through terror, right? In our perspective, they were very aware of what they were doing. And what better way to show how ruthless they are than to attack the most innocent thing on this Earth - right? - babies, children, women.

ROSE: The LeBaron family lives in this area near the U.S.-Mexico border that is a major corridor for drug trafficking. Rhonita's sister, Adriana Jones says they saw the growing violence around them. But Adriana said nothing could have prepared them for this.

ADRIANA JONES: There was this idea that our innocence⁸ would protect us, that somehow because we were so completely uninvolved in any of it, that we were safe. I personally would tell my own husband when I would go home - because I would drive four hours on the Mexico border to go home - I don't want you on those roads. I'm like, nobody's going to mess with a mom and five children. Like, who would do such a thing? I - those exact words I used in an argument with him and said nobody is going to hurt us. We're not part of - we're not getting in their way, you know? Yeah, stuff was going on around us. But no, we never could have imagined the brutality⁹ of what happened to my sister and her four children, not in a thousand years.

SHAPIRO: I mentioned that the family was meeting with members of Congress this week. Tell us more about what they were doing here.

ROSE: Right. They're lobbying on Capitol Hill this week. And what they ultimately want is for the U.S. government to designate these drug cartels as terrorist organizations. That would give the U.S. government more tools to fight them. And it could also clear the way for the U.S. to send troops or drones into Mexico. I asked Brian LeBaron, another cousin from Utah, if he would support that.

B LEBARON: Our No. 1 position is that the sovereignty of Mexico must be respected. But I absolutely would welcome military aid, special ops especially - special missions. We need that to be able to go after these guys. It has been proven over and over that Mexico cannot handle this issue alone. It's an international crisis, and it will absolutely require an international solution.

SHAPIRO: What has the White House said about this idea of designating drug cartels as terrorists?

ROSE: Well, initially¹⁰, President Trump¹¹ was very much on board with this idea. Now the president has temporarily put the designation on hold, he says, at the request of Mexico's president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. And I should say that Lopez Obrador is not the only one who thinks this designation is a bad idea. I talked to Roberta Jacobson, a longtime U.S. diplomat¹² who served as ambassador to Mexico until last year.

ROBERTA JACOBSON: I certainly understand the anger and the outrage¹³ of families of victims, whether they be American or Mexican, but this is not an effective tool to go after this kind of crime.

ROSE: Jacobson says there is a widespread perception in Mexico that the point of this designation is to pave the way for U.S. military intervention¹⁴. And she says that idea is deeply unpopular in Mexico, so much so that sending in U.S. troops could jeopardize¹⁵ the cooperation of the Mexican government in the fight against cartels.

JACOBSON: Mexico will absolutely reject any kind of military action and become a fierce opponent of what you're trying to do instead of an ally in this fight.

ROSE: There's also an argument that the terrorism designation could undermine the Trump administration's immigration policies.

SHAPIRO: What do those two things have to do with each other?

ROSE: Well, the concern is that the designation could spark a whole new wave of asylum-seekers coming to the U.S. - Mexican asylum-seekers who could argue that, you know, their town is controlled by terrorists at a time when the Trump administration has been doing everything it can to stop the flow of asylum-seekers crossing the southern border.

And there's sort of another concern that's related to that that has to do with the policy called remain in Mexico, which forces asylum-seeking migrants to wait in Mexico for their day in U.S. immigration courts. Critics say it's bad enough that the Trump administration is sending migrants fleeing from persecution¹⁶ back to these dangerous border towns that are controlled by cartels, but they argue it would be even more hypocritical to send them back to territory that's controlled by, quote-unquote, "terrorists."

SHAPIRO: That's NPR's Joel Rose.

Thanks, Joel.

ROSE: You're welcome.

1 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

2 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

3 dual   

adj.双的；二重的，二元的

参考例句：

• The people's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national.中华人民共和国不承认中国公民具有双重国籍。
• He has dual role as composer and conductor.他兼作曲家及指挥的双重身分。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

6 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。

7 crunched   

v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的过去式和过去分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄

参考例句：

• Our feet crunched on the frozen snow. 我们的脚嘎吱嘎吱地踩在冻雪上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He closed his jaws on the bones and crunched. 他咬紧骨头，使劲地嚼。 来自英汉文学 - 热爱生命

8 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

9 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

10 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

11 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。

12 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

13 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。

14 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

15 jeopardize   

vt.危及，损害

参考例句：

• Overworking can jeopardize your health.工作过量可能会危及你的健康。
• If you are rude to the boss it may jeopardize your chances of success.如果你对上司无礼，那就可能断送你成功的机会。

16 persecution   

n. 迫害,烦扰

参考例句：

• He had fled from France at the time of the persecution. 他在大迫害时期逃离了法国。
• Their persecution only serves to arouse the opposition of the people. 他们的迫害只激起人民对他们的反抗。