每日英語跟讀 Ep.K202: ‘We’re Living in Hell’: Inside Mexico’s Most Terrified City

The violence was already terrifying, she said, when grenades exploded outside her church in broad daylight some five years ago. Then children in town were kidnapped, disappearing without a trace. Then the bodies of the executed were dumped in city streets.

她說，大約五年前，光天化日下手榴彈在她的教會外爆炸，這種暴力已經夠嚇人了。接著鎮上的孩子被綁架，消失得無影無蹤。然後他們被處刑的屍體丟棄在城市街道上。

And then came the day last month when armed men burst into her home, dragged her 15-year-old son and two of his friends outside and shot them to death, leaving Guadalupe — who didn’t want her full name published out of fear of the men — too terrified to leave the house.

接下來是上個月的那一天，武裝男子闖進她家，將她的15歲兒子和兒子兩個友人拖出屋外射殺，讓瓜達魯佩太過驚嚇以致於不敢離開家，因為害怕那些男子，她不希望刊出全名。

“I do not want the night to come,” she said, through tears. “Living with fear is no life at all.”

「我不希望黑夜來臨」，她流著淚說，「活在恐懼中完全不是人過的日子」。

For most of the population of Fresnillo, a mining city in central Mexico, a fearful existence is the only one they know; 96% of residents say they feel unsafe, the highest percentage of any city in Mexico, according to a recent survey from Mexico’s national statistics agency.

對於弗雷斯尼約這個墨西哥中部礦城的大多數人而言，他們知道的只有一項可怕現實。根據墨西哥國家統計局最近一項調查，96%居民說他們感覺不安全，是墨西哥所有城市比率最高者。

The economy can boom and bust, presidents and parties and their promises can come and go, but for the city’s 140,000 people, as for many in Mexico, there is a growing sense that no matter what changes, the violence endures.

經濟可以暴起大落，總統和政黨以及他們的承諾來來去去，但對這座城市的14萬人來說，如同墨西哥許多城市，不論有什麼改變，暴力依舊持續，這種意見正在增加。

In 2018, during his run for president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador offered a grand vision to remake Mexico. Instead of arresting and killing traffickers as previous leaders had done, he would focus on the causes of violence: “hugs not bullets,” he called it. He was swept to victory.

2018年總統選戰期間，羅培茲提出重塑墨西哥的遠大願景，他不像歷任領導人所做的逮捕並殺掉壞蛋，而是聚焦暴力的成因，他稱之為「擁抱而非子彈」。他壓倒式勝選。

But three years after his landslide win, and with his Morena party in control of Congress, the drumbeat of death continues, suggesting that López Obrador’s approach has failed, fueling in many a paralyzing helplessness.

但在他壓倒式勝利以及他的國家復興運動黨掌控國會三年後，死亡的鼓聲持續著，暗示羅培茲的方法已經失敗，激起許多人有如麻痹的無助感。

“We’re living in hell,” said Victor Piña, who ran for mayor of Fresnillo in the June elections and watched an aide gunned down beside him during a pre-campaign event.

「我們活在地獄裡」，今年6月參選弗雷斯尼約市長的維克多．皮納說，他在一場選前活動中看到一名幕僚在他身旁遭槍擊。

Zacatecas, the state Fresnillo is in, has the country’s highest murder rate, with 122 deaths in June, according to the Mexican government. Across Mexico, murders have dropped less than 1% since López Obrador took office, according to the country’s statistics agency. That was enough for the president to claim that there had been an improvement on a problem his administration inherited.

弗雷斯尼約所在的薩卡特卡斯州，謀殺率為全國最高，根據墨西哥政府，6月有122人死亡。根據國家統計局，羅培茲上任以來，墨西哥全國各地謀殺率下降不到1%，這已足夠讓總統宣稱，在他的政府上任後，這個問題已有改善。

Many in Fresnillo disagree.

弗雷斯尼約的許多人不這麼認為。

“‘Hugs not bullets’ doesn’t work,” said Javier Torres Rodríguez, whose brother was shot and killed in 2018. “We’re losing the ability to be shocked.”

「擁抱而非子彈沒有用」，哈維耶．托雷斯．羅里奎茲說，他的兄弟2018年遭槍擊死亡，「我們正失去感到震驚的能力」。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5704988