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Topic: 對現狀不滿拉美從傾右變傾左 Leftists Replacing Right-Wing Leaders Across Latin America

In the final weeks of 2021, Chile and Honduras voted decisively for leftist presidents to replace leaders on the right, extending a significant, multiyear shift across Latin America.
在2021年的最後幾周，智利和宏都拉斯果斷地投票支援 左翼總統取代右翼領導人，延續 了整個拉丁美洲長達數年的重大轉變。

This year, leftist politicians are the favorites to win presidential elections in Colombia and Brazil, taking over from right-wing incumbents, which would put the left and center-left in power in the six largest economies in the region, stretching from Tijuana to Tierra del Fuego.
今年，左翼政客是贏得哥倫比亞和巴西總統選舉的最愛，他們接替了右翼現任者，這將使左翼和中左翼在該地區從蒂華納到火地島的六大經濟體中掌權。

Economic suffering, widening inequality, fervent anti-incumbent sentiment and mismanagement of COVID-19 have all fueled a pendulum swing away from the center-right and right-wing leaders who were dominant a few years ago.
經濟困境、不斷擴大的不平等、狂熱的反現任情緒以及對COVID-19的管理不善，都助長了幾年前佔主導地位的中右翼和右翼領導人的鐘擺擺動。

The left has promised more equitable distribution of wealth, better public services and vastly expanded social safety nets. But the region’s new leaders face serious economic constraints and legislative opposition that could restrict their ambitions — and restive voters who have been willing to punish whoever fails to deliver.
左翼承諾更公平地分配財富，提供更好的公共服務，並大大擴展社會安全網。但該地區的新領導人面臨著嚴重的經濟限制和立法反對，這可能會限制他們的野心-以及願意懲罰任何未能兌現承諾的人的不安分選民。

The left’s gains could buoy China and undermine the United States as they compete for regional influence, analysts say, with a new crop of Latin American leaders who are desperate for economic development and more open to Beijing’s global strategy of offering loans and infrastructure investment. The change could also make it harder for the United States to continue isolating authoritarian leftist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
分析人士說，左翼的收益可能會提振中國，削弱美國，因為他們在爭奪地區影響力時，新一批拉丁美洲領導人迫切希望經濟發展，並對北京的全球戰略持更開放的態度， 提供貸款和 基礎設施投資。這一變化還可能使美國更難繼續孤立委內瑞拉、尼加拉瓜和古巴的獨裁左翼政權。

With rising inflation and stagnant economies, Latin America’s new leaders will find it hard to deliver real change on profound problems, said Pedro Mendes Loureiro, a professor of Latin American studies at the University of Cambridge. To some extent, he said, voters are “electing the left simply because it is the opposition at the moment.”
隨著通貨膨脹率上升和經濟停滯，拉丁美洲的新領導人將發現很難在深刻的問題上實現真正的變革，劍橋大學拉丁美洲研究教授佩德羅·門德斯·洛雷羅（Pedro Mendes Loureiro）說。他說，在某種程度上，選民正在"選舉左翼，僅僅是因為它目前是反對派。"

Unlike the early 2000s, when leftists won critical presidencies in Latin America, the new officeholders are saddled by debt, lean budgets, scant access to credit and, in many cases, vociferous opposition.
與2000年代初不同，當時左翼分子在拉丁美洲贏得了關鍵的總統職位 ，而新的官員則背負著債務，預算緊張， 信貸匱乏以及在許多情況下大聲反對的負擔。

Eric Hershberg, director of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University, said the left’s winning streak is born out of widespread indignation.
美國大學拉丁美洲和拉丁裔研究中心主任埃裡克·赫什伯格（Eric Hershberg ）表示，左翼的連勝源於 廣泛的憤怒。

“This is really about lower-middle-class and working-class sectors saying, ‘Thirty years into democracy, and we still have to ride a decrepit bus for two hours to get to a bad health clinic,’”Hershberg said.
"這實際上是關於中下層階層和工人階層部門說，'民主三十年後，我們仍然必須乘坐破舊的公共汽車兩個小時才能到達一個糟糕的健康診所，'"赫什伯格說。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/6092284

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Topic : Venezuela, Once an Oil Giant, Reaches the End of an Era

For the first time in a century, there are no rigs searching for oil in Venezuela.
百年來，委內瑞拉首次沒有鑽油平台在鑽探石油。

Wells that once tapped the world’s largest crude reserves are abandoned or left to flare toxic gases that cast an orange glow over depressed oil towns.
曾自全球最大原油礦藏採油的油井，不是廢棄，就是任由洩漏的毒性氣體逕自燃燒，使附近蕭條的石油城鎮蒙上一層橘光。

Refineries that once processed oil for export are rusting hulks, leaking crude that blackens shorelines and coats the water in an oily sheen.
先前把石油加工出口的煉油廠成了生鏽的殘骸，洩漏的原油染黑了海岸線，並在海面形成一層油光。

Fuel shortages have brought the country to a standstill. At gas stations, lines go on for miles.
燃料短缺使這個國家陷入癱瘓。在加油站，排隊加油的車輛綿延數哩。

Venezuela’s colossal oil sector, which shaped the country and the international energy market for a century, has come to a near halt, with production reduced to a trickle by years of gross mismanagement and U.S. sanctions. The collapse is leaving behind a destroyed economy and a devastated environment and, many analysts say, bringing to an end the era of Venezuela as an energy powerhouse.
委內瑞拉龐大的石油業曾形塑這個國家和國際能源市場長達百年，如今卻幾近停頓，由於多年來管理不善和遭受美國制裁，產量只剩一丁點。石油業崩潰導致經濟慘淡，環境重創，且如許多分析家所言，為委國作為能源大國的時代畫下句點。

The country that a decade ago was the largest producer in Latin America, earning about $90 billion a year from oil exports, is expected to net about $2.3 billion by this year’s end — less than the aggregate amount that Venezuelan migrants who fled the country’s economic devastation will send back home
to support their families, according to Pilar Navarro, a Caracas, Venezuela-based economist.
長駐委國首都卡拉卡斯的經濟學家納瓦洛說，當地10年前是拉丁美洲最大產油國，每年出口石油賺進900億美元，但到今年年底，預計可進帳23億美元，還不及為逃避經濟崩潰而出國的國民匯回養家的金錢總額。

Production is the lowest in nearly a century after sanctions forced most oil companies to stop drilling for or buying Venezuelan oil — and even that trickle could dry up soon, analysts warn.
分析家警告，制裁迫使許多石油公司停止鑽探或購買委國石油，以致其產量降到近百年來最低，甚至最後這點生產也可能即將停止。

The decline has diminished beyond recognition a country that just a decade ago rivaled the United States for regional influence. It is also unraveling a national culture defined by oil, a source of cash that once seemed endless; it financed monumental public works and pervasive graft, generous scholarships and flashy shopping trips to Miami.
石油業衰落，使十年前與美國享有同等區域影響力的委內瑞拉面目全非，還破壞了以石油為基礎的的國家文化，石油曾經是看似取之不盡的現金來源：支應大型公共工程，助長普遍存在的貪腐，用以發放豐厚的獎學金，也讓人們享受到美國佛州邁阿密的豪華購物之旅。

Crippling gasoline shortages have led to an outbreak of dozens of daily protests across most Venezuelan states in recent weeks.
汽油嚴重短缺，導致最近幾周委內瑞拉多數州每天總共爆發數十場抗議。

More than 5 million Venezuelans, or 1 in 6 residents, have fled the country since 2015, creating one of the world’s greatest refugee crises, according to the United Nations. The country now has the highest poverty rate in Latin America, overtaking Haiti this year, according to a recent study by Venezuela’s three leading universities.
聯合國資料顯示，2015年起已有逾500萬，也就是六分之一委國人逃離，是全球最大難民潮之一。委國三所頂尖大學最近的調查顯示，委國今年取代海地，成為拉美貧困率最高的國家。Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/358363/web