VOA慢速英语--委内瑞拉士兵选择逃亡沙漠

Venezuelan Soldiers Choose to Desert

A Venezuelan opposition¹ plan failed to bring humanitarian² aid into the country Saturday.

Soldiers loyal to President Nicolas Maduro refused to let the trucks carrying food and medical supplies cross the border from Colombia. Many of Venezuela’s National Guard then made the decision to flee the military and their country for Colombia. Immigration officials there said that more than 320 soldiers have sought shelter in Colombia since Saturday.

Many of the military dissenters³ ended up in a shelter run by a Catholic religious worker. There, they can find information about family members back home. The former soldiers are also learning how to request for asylum⁴.

Nine of them spoke⁵ with the Associated Press. They described the day they were ordered by commanders to stop aid from entering Venezuela. Many feared they would be placed in jail. So, they obeyed their orders and fired tear gas at protesters. Two soldiers said they were part of the failed aid transport plot.

The soldiers’ escape comes as the Venezuelan opposition pressures the military to accept Juan Guaidó as the nation’s true president. More than 50 nations -- including the United States and many Latin American countries -- have recognized Guaidó as such.

But top military officials have stood by Maduro, who has shown no sign that he will surrender power.

The soldiers who fled say within the military, breaking from Maduro is almost impossible. The Venezuelan army includes at least 200,000 troops.

Severe shortages of food and medicine in the last few years have led more than 3 million people to leave Venezuela

When Guaidó first announced the aid push, Jorge Torres said he and three other soldiers began to form a plan. As National Guard drivers, they had access to armored trucks. They planned to drive the vehicles across the Simon Bolivar International Bridge, break down the barriers that stood in the way and permit opposition trucks to carry the aid in.

Saturday morning, Torres climbed into one of the trucks and drove it across the bridge. He broke through several barriers, but also hit a woman trying to enter Colombia. She escaped serious injury, but he was forced to stop.

Torres raised his arms in surrender and helped the woman toward a hospital emergency vehicle. He was quickly taken and presented to Guaidó, who secretly came across the border into Colombia to lead the aid launch.

Torres said he stood at attention and promised his loyalty⁶ to Guaidó. “We’re still in time to change history,” he said Guaidó told him.

Many of the soldiers said they worry their wives and children will now face problems. They are also concerned about finances. Many soldiers who have fled in the last year have had difficulty getting work. They end up making a little money selling food on the streets.

Almost all the soldiers who left would support a foreign intervention⁷ in Venezuela and join in the fight.

Guaidó called on the international community Saturday to consider all possible actions to resolve Venezuela’s crisis. The conflict over the aid shipments caused four deaths and injured 300 other people.

Several of the dissenters said they believe the best way forward is for more troops to leave and help form a resistance from outside. Some say Venezuelans alone should lead such efforts. Others believe resistance requires the help of an international coalition⁸.

All said they do not see themselves as dissenters, but as troops set on restoring Venezuela’s democracy.

“We’re going to change history,” Torres said. “We are history.”

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Words in this Story

access – n. a way of getting near, at, or to something or someone

1 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

2 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

3 dissenters   

n.持异议者，持不同意见者( dissenter的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He attacked the indulgence shown to religious dissenters. 他抨击对宗教上持不同政见者表现出的宽容。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• (The dissenters would have allowed even more leeway to the Secretary.) （持异议者还会给行政长官留有更多的余地。） 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

4 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

7 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

8 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。