環(huán)球英語—1165:Nuevo Laredo

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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Nick Page.
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And I’m Ryan Geertsma. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easy for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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Between Mexico and the United States, there is a “drug corridor”. In this area, people bring illegal drugs from South America to Mexico. Then, they take the drugs across the border into the United States and sell them. Many people in the United States buy and use these drugs.
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Transporting and selling drugs is dangerous, illegal work. It is work with a long history of violence. Almost every week, people find dead bodies in towns on the border. Some of these bodies do not have heads, hands, or feet. Often, there is a note left with the bodies. This note tells how the dead betrayed the people who sell drugs. Today’s Spotlight is on the drug trade in towns on the US and Mexican border.
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The people managing the drug trade are in groups called “cartels.” The cartels have a lot of power in Northern Mexico. For people in the border towns, the drug cartels are a part of daily life. People go missing all the time. Very often, they are killed because they spoke against the cartels. The cartels threaten reporters and writers for talking about the drug trade. Even government officials cannot stop the drug trade. If they try, the cartels threaten their families.
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The violence of the drug trade is very complex. Ken Ellingwood is a writer for the Los Angeles Times newspaper. He told the news organization NPR:
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“Three different wars are happening at the same time. First, the government of Mexico started a war against organized crime, like the drug cartels. The second war is between drug cartels. They are fighting over land and paths into the United States. And the third war is inside the drug cartels. There are big changes when leaders have been killed or sent to prison. There is a struggle for power within these big organizations, which has led to a lot of violence.”
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There were a lot of conditions that made the drug war possible. When the governments in South America started working against the drug trade, the trade moved up into Mexico. The government in Mexico was not prepared to control the cartels. Many of the police in towns between Mexico and the United States are corrupt. Criminals give the police money and the police do not arrest them for their crimes. This makes conditions worse for average citizens. They cannot trust the police.
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But it is not just corrupt governments and people buying the drugs that aid the drug trade. There is also poverty. Recently, there were many factories in Northern Mexico. US companies built products in Mexico because local labor did not cost a lot of money. But there have been some changes in labor laws. Now, a lot of companies are moving their work to Asia. The factories in Northern Mexico are closing.
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When the factories leave, people have no place to work. They have no way to feed their families. Many people move to different towns. They think that they can live a better life in a different place. Some of them move to the United States to look for work. Other people stay in town and work in the drug trade. For many people, the only way to make money is through crime.
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Braulio Pavón is 34 years old. He lives in a border town called Nuevo Laredo. He used to work in one of Nuevo Laredo’s maquiladoras, or factories. But he lost his job when the company moved to China. Now, during the day, Pavón works at a store. At night, he washes car windows for money. Washing windows and asking for money is against the law. The police will often demand that Pavón give them money or else they will arrest him. Sometimes, they take ALL of his money. Pavón told Mother Jones magazine:
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“I tell them, you are pushing me to rob!”
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Many former factory workers have the same problems as Pavón. Fela Contreras is another worker who lost her job at a maquiladora. She told Mother Jones:
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“You work all your life and leave your childhood there. And then they say, 'Goodbye, you are waste, you are old.'”
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The drug cartels also know that people without money are more willing to join the drug trade. Some even advertise in major cities. Large signs hang from bridges. The signs read, “Why be poor? Come work for us.” It is very appealing. They offer a life of riches. But it is also a life of violence.
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In the town of Nuevo Laredo, the poverty and the violence affect the lives of all citizens. Nuevo Laredo is very close to the border with the United States. Many different cartels fight over the town. They all want to control the business there. Also, many of the citizens are very poor. This creates a good environment to invite people into the drug trade. It also creates a lot of violence.
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But some people are trying to help. Martha Ojeda was born in Nuevo Laredo. She moved to the United States to work as a lawyer. Now, she helps people in North Mexico. Ojeda negotiates for higher wages and better working conditions. Ojeda hopes that this will keep people from joining the drug trade. But helping the workers is only one step in a very complex problem.
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Ioan Grillo is a writer. He lives in Mexico studying the drug wars and the cartels. In his book, El Narco, he repeats this same idea. He believes that wars happen because people cannot feed their families. People feel like they are not important. They feel angry because they are poor. And the drug cartels use that anger, to get people to work for them. Killing and dying becomes a path to glory. Grillo thinks that this is the main problem - that poor people have no choice in their lives and no help. He told CNN:
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“I would love to see more money spent on these concerns about the poor than on military helicopters and soldiers fighting with the cartels.”
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In the end, it will take a lot of work to solve Mexico’s drug problem. Ashley Fantz is a reporter for CNN. She has reported on the drug war. She says that the problem is far too complex to have a simple solution. She writes:
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“To understand the drug war, one must accept that it is impossible to know all of the people involved. Accept that there is no black and white. There is only grey. A fog.”
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The writer and producer of this program was Dianna Anderson. The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program again, and read it, on the internet at https://www.radioenglish.net This .program is called, “Nuevo Laredo.”
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We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.