VOA标准英语2009年-Violent Drug War Continues in Mexico

Greg Flakus | Houston 16 December 2009

Watch: Greg Flakus' video report
Windows Media

 
Gun battle on the streets of Juarez

As 2009 comes to a close, drug-related violence in Mexico continues to rage along the border with the United States and in other areas where powerful drug cartels are fighting over turf and billions of dollars in narcotics¹ profits. 

The two cities that sprawl² over the plains by the desert mountains could not be more different.  El Paso, Texas is ranked the second safest city in the United States.  But it sits just across the border from one of the most dangerous cities in the world - Juarez, Mexico.

Despite a massive deployment³ of armed forces and federal police in drug trafficking zones, some 4,000 people have been killed in Juarez during the past two years.  Mexican President Felipe Calderon began the war on organized crime shortly after taking office in December, 2006.  Although he continues to enjoy public support for the effort, experts say the results have been mixed.

In many cases, police and soldiers sent to fight the drug gangs have been accused of working with the criminals.  There have even been high-ranking government officials arrested for taking bribes⁴ from drug traffickers.

That has led some security analysts⁵ like Fred Burton of the Austin, Texas-based global intelligence company Stratfor to question whether President Calderon can win this war.

"It is extraordinarily⁶ challenging and that is why Calderon is fighting a war on multiple fronts," said  Fred Burton. "Let's not forget that he has a tremendous corruption⁷ problem, not knowing who to trust within his own ranks at times."

Stratfor was one of several organizations earlier this year warning that Mexico could become a failed state if it does not win the war against the criminal elements that hold sway over some areas of the country.

But University of Texas at El Paso anthropologist⁸ Howard Campbell says that kind of talk is not helpful.

"There are several problems with this notion of a failed state," said Howard Campbell. "One of them is that somehow in Mexico, all of a sudden, the government has become heavily corrupted⁹ by cartels as if there wasn't corruption in the past.  This might be a greater magnitude and level of corruption, because of drug cartels.  But corruption, unfortunately, has been a big part of the Mexican political system for a very long time."

Campbell says it is in the interest of the United States and Mexico to prevent criminal gangs from gaining effective control of Juarez or any other parts of Mexico.

"What we have are serious threats to public security," he said. "We have tremendous crime problems, with violence and corruption.  But these are things that can be minimized and lessened¹⁰ if Mexico and the United States work together, identify the most serious problems and try to fight them in very focused ways."

The U.S. government is also going after drug traffickers north of the border.  Washington has provided material aid to the Calderon government and is coordinating¹¹ anti-cartel efforts with Mexican authorities, using the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Houston as the spearhead.

At a recent discussion about illegal drugs at the James A. Baker¹² Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, DEA intelligence chief for the Houston sector¹³, Gary Hale, said one sign of progress is that the cartels are seeking other sources of income, with drugs comprising only about 20 percent of their overall profits.

"What does that mean?  That means that we are affecting their ability to make money, lots of money - their only source of money through drugs," said Gary Hale. "And now, they are using other crime activities to generate their income."

The expansion of crime organizations into other areas is not good news for Mexican citizens caught in the middle of this war.  Kidnappings, automobile¹⁴ thefts and armed robberies have made many Mexicans feel insecure.  They hope that somehow their government's efforts to fight crime will show more progress in the year ahead.  

 

1 narcotics   

n.麻醉药( narcotic的名词复数 )；毒品；毒

参考例句：

• The use of narcotics by teenagers is a problem in many countries. 青少年服用麻醉药在许多国家中都是一个问题。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Police shook down the club, looking for narcotics. 警方彻底搜查了这个俱乐部，寻找麻醉品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 sprawl   

vi.躺卧，扩张，蔓延；vt.使蔓延；n.躺卧，蔓延

参考例句：

• In our garden,bushes are allowed to sprawl as they will.在我们园子里，灌木丛爱怎么蔓延就怎么蔓延。
• He is lying in a sprawl on the bed.他伸开四肢躺在床上。

3 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

4 bribes   

n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• corrupt officials accepting bribes 接受贿赂的贪官污吏

5 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

6 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

7 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

8 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

9 corrupted   

（使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏

参考例句：

• The body corrupted quite quickly. 尸体很快腐烂了。
• The text was corrupted by careless copyists. 原文因抄写员粗心而有讹误。

10 lessened   

减少的，减弱的

参考例句：

• Listening to the speech through an interpreter lessened its impact somewhat. 演讲辞通过翻译的嘴说出来，多少削弱了演讲的力量。
• The flight to suburbia lessened the number of middle-class families living within the city. 随着迁往郊外的风行，住在城内的中产家庭减少了。

11 coordinating   

v.使协调，使调和( coordinate的现在分词 )；协调；协同；成为同等

参考例句：

• He abolished the Operations Coordinating Board and the Planning Board. 他废除了行动协调委员会和计划委员会。 来自辞典例句
• He's coordinating the wedding, and then we're not going to invite him? 他是来协调婚礼的，难道我们不去请他？ 来自电影对白

12 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

13 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

14 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。