在线英语听力室_免费在线英语听力学习网站

Unrest has spread across South American countries in recent weeks. This is the sound of protests last night in Bogota. Colombians have taken to the streets to express their unhappiness over a range of issues and their displeasure with the president, Ivan Duque. Reporter John Otis joins us from Bogota. John, thanks for being with us.

JOHN OTIS, BYLINE¹: Thanks for having me, Scott.

SIMON: And what issues have brought people into the streets?

OTIS: Well, Scott, they're angry over a great big, long list of issues, actually. They think President Duque hasn't supported Colombia's peace treaty, which ended a long guerrilla war back in 2016. They also are calling for more protection for human rights workers, hundreds of whom have been targeted and killed by criminal gangs. And they're also worried that the government is going to cut salaries and pension benefits, so there's some economic issues in there as well. And so this is what's led to these really very large protests that we saw both on Thursday and yesterday on Friday.

SIMON: I gather the protests themselves so far have been mostly peaceful. But there are things elsewhere going on in Colombia nearby that have not been.

OTIS: Yeah. I mean, the protests here in Colombia have been largely peaceful. But towards the end of the day both on Thursday and Friday, there were outbreaks of looting and vandalism, and a total of six people have been killed here so far in Colombia.

And all over Latin America, actually, there've been a lot of protests, some of them violent. You know, in Bolivia this month, protesters helped bring down President Evo Morales after a fraud-marred election. In Chile, the protests broke out over a hike in subway fares that led to a lot of burning and looting. And in Ecuador, the government there was nearly toppled when it raised gas prices. So there's a lot of unrest and anger in this region. But the issues seem to be, you know, a little different in every country.

SIMON: President Duque has been in office just a little more than a year. What's he intend to do in response?

OTIS: Well, you know, that's one of the problems. Even before these protests began, government officials were claiming that they were part of this broad left-wing conspiracy² to topple governments around Latin America. They really focused on sending in the police and army troops ahead of time to search homes for weapons. And they kind of painted the protesters more as kind of bandits and vandals rather than people with, you know, legitimate³ issues to protest about.

That caused a lot of anger, and that actually swelled⁴ the protests. It made them a lot bigger. So now President Duque has come out and said, OK, we're going to start a national dialogue about these issues starting next week. But he — you know, his response has really kind of been part of the problem, it seems.

SIMON: Colombia's been stable for quite some time — a number of years. Are these protests unsettling for a lot of people in the region?

OTIS: You know, that's exactly right. These protests here have caught people a little bit by surprise because Colombia has always been, you know, a very institutional country, despite guerrilla wars and cocaine⁵, drug-related violence. There's been a lot of government stability and economic stability. That's kind of one of the hallmarks of this country. There hasn't been a coup⁶ d'etat here since 1953. And even that curfew that was imposed in Bogota last night was the first time that's happened in 43 years.

So, you know, at least for now, it seems like people are just, you know, pushing for the government to change its direction rather than as in other countries to try to bring down the government.

SIMON: John Otis in Bogota, Colombia, thanks so much for being with us.

OTIS: Thank you.

最近几周，骚乱在多个南美国家蔓延。这是昨晚波哥大抗议现场的声音。哥伦比亚民众走上街头，表达他们对各种问题的不快以及对总统伊万·杜克的不满。记者约翰·奥蒂斯将从波哥大和我们连线。约翰，谢谢你。

约翰·奥蒂斯连线：谢谢你们邀请我，斯科特。

西蒙：什么问题使人们走上街头抗议？

奥蒂斯：斯科特，实际上人们对很多问题感到愤怒。他们认为总统杜克并没有支持哥伦比亚的和平条约，这项2016年签署的条约终结了一场旷日持久的的游击战。他们还要求政府采取更多措施保护人权工作者，因为有数百名人权工作者被犯罪团伙杀害。人们还担心政府将削减工资和养老金，因此，也有一些经济问题牵涉其中。这是引发周四和周五的大规模抗议活动的原因。

西蒙：我认为目前来看抗议活动基本上是和平的。但哥伦比亚周边地区的情况并不和平。

奥蒂斯：对。哥伦比亚的抗议活动总体上是和平的。但在周四和周五快要结束时，爆发了抢劫和故意破坏事件，截至目前，骚乱已导致6名哥伦比亚人死亡。

拉丁美洲爆发了很多抗议活动，其中一些已演变为暴力事件。这个月，在选举舞弊曝光后，玻利维亚抗议者帮助推翻了该国总统埃沃·莫拉莱斯。在智利，地铁涨价引发了抗议活动，随后导致了大量纵火和抢劫事件。而在厄瓜多尔，政府差点因上调油价而被推翻。因此，这一地区有很多不安和愤怒的情绪。不过，每个国家的问题似乎各有不同。

西蒙：杜克总统刚刚执政一年多。他计划采取哪些措施来应对？

奥蒂斯：这是其中一个问题。在抗议活动爆发前，哥伦比亚官员就宣称，抗议是企图推翻拉美各国政府的大规模左翼阴谋的组成部分。官员致力于提前部署警力和军队，入户搜查武器。他们将抗议者描绘成匪徒和破坏分子，而不是对合理性问题进行抗议的民众。

这引发了大量不满，继而助长了抗议活动。这使抗议活动更加壮大。因此，杜克总统公开表态称，好，我们将在下周启动全国性对话，讨论这些问题。但是他的回应似乎成为了问题的一部分。

西蒙：多年来，哥伦比亚的局势一直很稳定。这些抗议活动是否令该地区的民众感到不安？

奥蒂斯：完全没错。这些抗议活动令人们有些措手不及，因为哥伦比亚一直是一个有序的国家，尽管该国发生过游击战，还有与可卡因和毒品相关的暴力事件。哥伦比亚的政府和经济一直相当稳定。这是该国的标志之一。1953年以来，哥伦比亚从未发生过政变。就连波哥大昨晚的宵禁都是43年来首次实施。

至少现在看来，人们只是要求政府改变方向，而不是像其他国家那样试图推翻政府。

西蒙：以上是约翰·奥蒂斯从哥伦比亚波哥大带来的报道，非常谢谢你。

奥蒂斯：谢谢。