01 译文

本篇主要由 Jingyi 进行翻译。

本周开始 彭博商周（Bloomberg Businessweek）将提供一些故事，关于美国枪支及出口武器的问题。从 蒙特利尔到危地马拉，这个国家美国人也认为注定是无法被法律保护的。

（ShoelessCai 评注：危地马拉共和国，西班牙语：La República de Guatemala，简称危地马拉。是中 美洲的一个总统共和制国家，位于北美洲大陆的南部，全国总面积10.89万平方公里。全国划分为22个省 ，省下设338个市镇，首都位于危地马拉城。截至2022年，危地马拉总人口1860万。）

镜头切换到危地马拉的审判庭，法官 Carlos Ruano 经常审理枪支相关案件及犯人。犯罪嫌疑问带着 Glock 9mm （手枪）并且被捕，犯罪嫌疑人使用半自动枪械 Beretta 射杀一名在公共区域打篮球的男性 ，子弹穿过它的胸膛。这位极端分子 （Extortionist）被罚没（Confiscate）其武器，在和同犯接头时 候被捕。查获赃物中，含有枪支、面具及其他作案工具，与开车人是合作犯罪关系。这位被起诉的嫌疑 人的一切，包括出生日期、职业、地址等等都被记录，唯一其购买枪支的记录，是不被记录在案的。

许多危地马拉的枪支，也包括上述提到的3种型号，都是合法进口的，从美国的枪支制造商，这些制造商 这几年来成为该国主要武器供应商。然而，2020年许多规定却有所改变，枪支产量几乎翻倍了。大多数 都是半自动手枪，这些枪械大多数都是美国犯罪案例中经常出现的型号。武器大量进口使得危地马拉的 订单打败巴西，这个国家的人口是危地马拉的12倍，曾一度是拉美地区最大向美国购买枪支的国家。也 是同一时期，大约持续3年之久，危地马拉的杀人犯每年也始终增加，之前的11年持续降低。其中80%涉 及军火。

在武器被进口到真正出现在犯罪现场，枪支经历什么样的流转？大多数公开记录是空白的，而法官始终 认为枪支进入国境之后的使用记录，是不那么清白的。他注意到自己处理案件的趋势：每次经常罚没枪 支之后，再查询官方数据库，这些枪械来自于商业制造商、私人安保公司、甚至是官方执行人，这些记 录中总是写着枪支被偷或者遗失了。而上述案件中使用的 Glock ,官方数据显示，来自于危地马拉官方 警察，而文档记录只显示该枪支从仓库被偷了，这样的宣称还是在罪犯被捕之后的说辞。枪支 Beretta ，也就是篮球场用于射杀受害者的枪支，被记录是来自于一家枪支商店，这支枪是该商店遗失的 106 支 枪支中的一支。Smith & Wesson 拥有一家私人安保仓库，在枪支和极端分子一起出现之后，这支枪支被 记录是 236 支枪械中的一支，这些枪支在兵工厂的时候，就被标记为遗失。

“一个背包，绒线衫，伞，都可以丢失”，Ruano 抬起下巴眯起眼睛说到，“但是那么多枪支？实在太 违背逻辑。”对于他而言，解释似乎很显然，就是枪支进入了黑市。Ruano 咨询国家检察官，公安部门 （the Public Ministry）仔细检查了特殊事件，请求被忽略了，他说道，“公安部门不再调查这些案件 ”。

危地马拉不愿意打击武装力量导致了枪支大量流入境内的结果。2020年，允许军火出口由美国国务院转 移到美国商务部，这项转移使得枪支行业期待能放缓延迟交付，增加出口。自那时起，（枪支）在危地 马拉的销量成为了增长最快的几个国家之一，依据彭博商业数据分析。由美国进口的半自动枪械，由 2010年的每年3600支，上升到2021年每年10000支，而2022年年进口量达到20000支。这些数据显示了美 国枪械制造商更广阔的成功，自动2004年美国禁止侵略武器以来。那时候，半自动枪械出口全球达到 370万支，仅6年以来翻了两番。

（以下以火山翻译为主，人为微调）

危地马拉生动而悲情地地说明了这样一个事实，这些接受美国出口的国家（订单数量）是如何突然激增 的，而且，这些事情往往无法很好地被处理（这里指的无论出口国，还是进口国）。Joe Biden 在竞选 总统时发誓要扭转监管变化（vowed to reverse the regulatory），但他的政府却迟迟未迈出第一步（ kept it in place），枪支继续流向危地马拉——尽管政府机构会将出口情况记录在案，以及在多个州 部署枪支出口报告，危地马拉仍然滑入了无法无天的状态。在这些文件中，对于美国而言部署在危地马 拉的政策优先权，是强调法律的。文件规定，并不是细节的，以至于目前危地马拉的民众尚未被强制执 行从危险且支离破碎的系统中撤离（意指文件规定较为宽泛，执行起来尚有困难。ShoelessCai 评注） 。事实上，美国也利用了这些商机，和上述同种不稳定相关的上级，即枪支销量（Read between the line, 指的是美国没有鼓励民众撤离危地马拉，而是人手购买枪支，使得枪支本身走入街头巷尾）。

把更多的枪支运到一个被美国贴上“腐败”和“暴力”标签的地方，似乎与 Ruano 的观点大相径庭（原 文，is a blatant contradiction ）——“尤其是危地马拉这样的国家，如此薄弱的政府机构，无法应 对和处理那些流入的武器（原文：with such weak institutions that can’t cope with or control the weapons that do enter。ShoelessCai 评注：如此薄弱的机构，无法应对和处理那些流入的武器。 ）。”他补充道，危地马拉政府不仅仅是监管薄弱（weak on oversight）。根据内部监督机构 （According to recent audits of those programs by internal watchdogs）的资料，政府监管的保 护措施漏洞百出，这些措施主要目的是为了防止美国武器被用于侵犯人权或者国外犯罪。

（以下为 Jingyi 个人翻译为主）

这些失败削弱了美国国家安全委员会在最近的一份报告中为中美洲确定的优先事项（枪支监管不力，使 得美国国家安全委员会的权利变少了），该优先权即，对西南边境的非法移民的“根源”（root causes ）进行打击（counteract）。这些根源包括，“普遍的暴力”和“根深蒂固（entrenched）的 腐败网络”。一个国家部门（State Department），关于今年调研危地马拉的人权现状，出具了评估文件，该文件阅读起来，像镇压反乌托邦行为的清单（注意，这里清单针对的是，行为作为对象。原文：A State Department assessment of the human-rights situation in Guatemala published this year reads like a checklist for a repressive dystopia: ）。例如，“任意逮捕或者拘留”、“复杂问题由独立司法体系接手”、以及验证的“政府腐败”。

依据一些国会数据，美国枪支进一步腐蚀至糟糕的领域（corroding a bad situation）。“这是一件美 国制造商品，因此（枪支）不应该强制推之于像危地马拉一样的国家，（因为）该国众所周知地（we are seeing a mass exodus）有大量逃亡的妇女和儿童，因为政府未能满足他们的基本需求。” 代表 Norma Torres 说道，他说出生于危地马拉现为加州的民主党代表。

Ruano 说到，依据法院标准，他已然见证了枪支是供应链中的第一个链接，并且驱动着数以千计的危地 马拉人每年北移。“暴力升级，人们也自然会逃逸，因为他们在自己的社区不再觉得安全。”他说到。 过去五年中，那些在美国边境被逮捕的危地马拉人的人数激增，他们中很多提到了暴力威胁是他们移动 最主要的原因。

未完待续

02 原文

Welcome to Bw Reads, our weekend newsletter that brings an insightful magazine story from Bloomberg Businessweek right to your inbox, in its entirety—and for free.

Today, we’re featuring a story from an ongoing Bloomberg series on guns and how America has been exporting lethal weapons abroad. This is a deep look from Monte Reel on how American firearms are ending up in Guatemala, a country that the US has deemed to be fairly lawless. To read the story, as a gift link, complete with data analysis and graphics by Eric Fan and Christopher Cannon, go here. To get more from Businessweek, sign up here.

In courtrooms inside the judiciary tower in Guatemala City, Judge Carlos Ruano constantly confronts stories of criminals and their guns. There was the hit man who had a Glock 9mm tucked under his belt when the police apprehended him. The shooter with the semiautomatic Beretta that sent a bullet through the chest of a man playing basketball in a park. The extortionist whose Smith & Wesson .38 Special was confiscated when he was arrested for shaking down bus drivers. In the evidence packets, snapshots of the guns often appear next to the mug shots of the defendants, as if they’re partners in crime. The backstories of the accused criminals—dates of birth, occupations, addresses, family connections—are dutifully documented. The histories of the guns are not.

Many of the guns in Guatemala, including the three detailed above, were legally imported from the US. American gunmakers have been the leading supplier of firearms to Guatemala for years, but following a regulatory change in 2020, shipments have more than doubled. The vast majority have been semiautomatic pistols, the weapon most commonly used in US gun crimes. The influx has pushed Guatemala ahead of Brazil, a country with 12 times its population, as the top destination for US-made semiautomatics in Latin America. During the same three years, the number of murders in Guatemala has risen annually, after 11 straight years of decline. More than 80% have involved firearms.

What happens to guns after they’re imported and before they end up at crime scenes is often a blank spot in the public record, and the judge suspects these gaps aren’t innocent oversights. He’s noticed a trend in the cases that come into his courtroom: When a gun is confiscated by police and traced back to a national database, the listed owner of the gun— a commercial gun dealer, or a private security company, or even a governmental agency— files a report, after the fact, claiming the firearm in question was stolen or simply lost. That Glock carried by the hit man? It was imported in a shipment destined for the Guatemalan national police, whose administrators reported the pistol stolen from a warehouse after the man’s arrest. The Beretta used on the basketball court was registered to a gun store, which later claimed it was among 106 stolen firearms. The Smith & Wesson had been in a private security company’s warehouse, and after the pistol was found with the extortionist, the company reported that it was one of 236 guns that somehow had vanished from its arsenal.

“A backpack, a sweater, an umbrella—those things can be lost,” says Ruano. He narrows his eyes and lifts his chin. “But that many guns? It just defies logic.” To him, the explanation seems obvious: The guns weren’t lost or stolen; they were sold on the black market. Ruano has asked the national prosecutors in the Public Ministry to scrutinize the specific incidents. The requests have been ignored, he says. “The Public Ministry no longer investigates these cases.”

Guatemala’s unwillingness to crack down on the diversion of firearms has come as the influx of guns has soared. In 2020, regulatory authority for approving firearms exports shifted from the US Department of State to the Department of Commerce, a switch that the gun industry hoped would ease delays and result in more exports. Since then, the rise in sales to Guatemala has been among the steepest of any nation, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of trade data. Imports of US semiautomatic firearms jumped from an average of about 3,600 per year in the 2010s to more than 10,000 in 2021, and nearly 20,000 in 2022. Those figures reflect the broader success of American gunmakers since the US assault- weapons ban ended in 2004. In that time, their semiautomatic exports across the globe have totaled 3.7 million—more than doubling in the past six years alone.

Guatemala vividly, and often tragically, illustrates how the countries on the receiving end of the US export surge are often ill-equipped to handle it. Joe Biden vowed to reverse the regulatory change while campaigning for president, but his administration has kept it in place, and the guns have continued to flow to Guatemala—even as the administration has documented, in multiple State Department reports, the country’s slide into lawlessness. On paper, the foreign policy priority of the US in Guatemala is strengthening the rule of law —in no small part so that its citizens aren’t impelled to migrate away from a dangerous and broken system. In practice, the US government is taking advantage of a business opportunity connected to that same instability: gun sales.

Shipping more guns to a place the US labels corrupt and violent seems a blatant contradiction to Ruano—“especially in a country like Guatemala, with such weak institutions that can’t cope with or control the weapons that do enter,” he adds. But it ’s not just the Guatemalan government that’s weak on oversight. The US government’s regulatory safeguards, designed to prevent American weapons from being used to commit human-rights abuses or other crimes abroad, are full of holes, according to recent audits of those programs by internal watchdogs.

Those failures undercut the priorities that the US National Security Council identified for Central America in a recent report: to counteract the “root causes” driving illegal immigration to the southwest border. Those causes include “pervasive violence” and “entrenched networks of corruption.” A State Department assessment of the human-rights situation in Guatemala published this year reads like a checklist for a repressive dystopia: “arbitrary arrest and detention”; “serious problems with the independence of the judiciary”; and “serious government corruption.”

American guns, according to some in Congress, are further corroding a bad situation. “This is one American-made product that should not be pushed upon countries like Guatemala, where we are seeing a mass exodus of primarily women and children because they’re fleeing a government that has failed to answer to their basic needs,” says Representative Norma Torres, a Democrat from California who was born in Guatemala.

From his courtroom bench, Ruano says, he’s seen that guns are often the first link in a chain that drives thousands of Guatemalans to migrate north every year. “Violence increases, and of course people flee because they no longer feel safe in their neighborhoods,” he says. In the past five years, the number of Guatemalans apprehended at the US border has soared, with many of them citing the threat of violence as their reason for migrating.