【经济学人】总统宣传视频坏评如潮丨2017.04.27丨总第890期

IN WEEKS of almost daily protests, opponents of Venezuela’s authoritarian regime have found different ways to express their anger. They have held raucous banner-waving marches, a silent demonstration and a sit-in on Caracas’s main roads. At least 29 people have died since March in the worst unrest in three years. Many of these were killed by armed gangs that support the government, called colectivos. The protests persist because the government has made life intolerable: shortages of food and medicine are acute, the murder rate is probably the world’s highest and democracy has been extinguished.

委内瑞拉权威主义的反对者们找到了表达愤怒的方法，他们在这几周里几乎每天都上街游行。他们在加拉斯加的主干道上举行了沉默的、静坐的游行示威。在这动荡的三年里至少有29人由于游行而死亡。其中大多数人是被支持委内瑞拉政府的武装团伙“colectivos”杀害的。由于政府的不作为，使得食物和药品短缺的情况变得非常严重，犯罪率可能居于世界首位，民主的火苗也熄灭了。这一系列的事情，导致委内瑞拉的抗议游行持续不断。

• sit-in：是示威的一种，以非暴力方式，著名于甘地，以后的示威者多模仿之。

• authoritarian regime：又译权威主义，指政府要求人民绝对服从其权威的原则，而不是个人的思想和行动自由。政府上的威权主义指权力集中于单一领袖或一小撮精英。威权领导者在行使权力时常不考虑现有法律而任意，公民也通常无法自由竞争的选举来替换之。

But all is well in the world of Nicolás Maduro, the country’s much-loathed president. While chaos engulfs Venezuela’s cities, his social-media team has been seeking to humanise the dictator with video vignettes that emphasise his homespun origins and simple wisdom. In one video, posted on his Facebook page, he rhapsodises on the innocence of childhood as he perches awkwardly on a playground swing. In another, he admires a panorama of an apparently tranquil Caracas from the safety of a cable-car gondola. Sometimes he takes to the wheel of his car with his wife, Cilia Flores, sitting glumly beside him; this is an occasion to reminisce about his early career as a bus driver.

但是，在国内令人讨厌的总统Nicolás Maduro却在世界上舞台上一帆风顺。当委内瑞拉的城市陷入混乱局面时，Nicolás Maduro的社交媒体团队一直在寻求美化其独裁者形象的方法，这个方法就是将那些强调总统出身朴素，拥有的小智慧的视频上传到脸书网上。有他热情谈论他充满童真的童年，他笨拙的小身体坐在操场的秋千上。还有，他在缆车上俯瞰外表充满宁静的加拉加斯全景。有时他还会和妻子Cilia Flores一起开车兜风，但Cilia Flores一脸阴郁的坐在他旁边。这是一个缅怀他早年认识的一位公交司机生涯好时机。

The social-media stream is an addition to the information arsenal of chavismo, the leftist movement founded by the late Hugo Chávez and carried on with less elan by Mr Maduro. Its main weapon was, and remains, state control of television, which repeats endlessly the risible claim that Venezuela is a victim of an economic war. Broadcasts by the president can last as long as a double-feature. Lacking Chávez’s charisma, Mr Maduro hopes to come across as cuddly in his up-close-and-personal videos (and a salsa show on radio).

（期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~）在查韦斯时代，他们主要的宣传武器是电视，现在仍是电视。即由国家控制电视，通过电视不断的发表关于委内瑞拉是经济战的受害者的声明。总统录制的广播节目几乎等于两部电影的时长了。没有了查韦斯那样的感召力，Maduro 先生希望通过他录制的近距离小视频可以给人们留下好印象。

Venezuelans are not beguiled. The films show a falta de respeto (lack of respect), many say. “I think he actually enjoys laughing at us,” says Daniel Torres, an engineering student.

委内瑞拉人民并没有被总统的视频所欺骗。很多人说，这些视频的内容没有展示出对人民的尊重。一个工程系的学生Daniel Torres说：“我觉得他以嘲笑我们为乐趣。”

Venezuelans are especially annoyed by a video of the president, resplendent in a white tracksuit, playing catch with Diosdado Cabello, the thuggish former president of the national assembly. “A democratic game, a constitutional game,” sniggers Mr Cabello. He helped plan many of the government’s assaults on democracy, including a botched attempt in March to transfer the powers of the legislature, now controlled by the opposition, to the supreme court, which takes orders from the government. “We are working,” promises Mr Maduro, as he tosses the ball back to his partner in misrule.

委内瑞拉人民尤其很讨厌其中的一个视频，在视频中，总统身着高档白色运动服和Diosdado Cabello（残暴的前国民大会议长）玩棒球。Diosdado Cabello暗笑道，“棒球是大众的游戏，保健的游戏”。Diosdado Cabello帮助计划了许多次对政府民主制度的攻击，包括在三月试图转移立法机关权利的一次失败尝试，听命于政府的最高法院现在被反对党控制了。Maduro先生边把球投向他施行暴政的伙伴，一边回应道：”我们正在玩就是即大众又保健的游戏。“

For Alberto Barrera Tyszka, an essayist, the video shows the “decadence” of chavismo. The images of frolicking well-fed politicians are an insult to the “poverty of Venezuelans”, most of whom have lost weight over the past two years, he has written. One of Mr Maduro’s clips shows him driving through a poor neighbourhood of Caracas to show off the apparent cheerfulness of the locals. A wall scrawled with the words, “Maduro, murderer of students”, is clearly visible as he drives past, but not to the oblivious president. Chavistas used to be good at propaganda. Now they cannot even get that right.

评论家Alberto Barrera Tyszka认为这个视频表明了查尔斯主义的衰落。肚满肥肠的政客们嬉戏的形象是在侮辱委内瑞拉的贫穷。他还写道，他们中的大多数人在过去的两年里还减重了。Maduro上传的其中一个视频是他开车通过加拉加斯的贫民区，去向当地人炫耀喜悦之情。而在他驶过的道路两旁墙上却有几个清晰的大字“Maduro是谋杀学生的犯人”，Maduro总统却视而不见。Chavistas总统曾经十分擅长政治宣传，但现在的这些领导人却做不到。

翻译 ▍栏目六第一组

审核 ▍Arias

图文编辑 ▍璃儿

责任编辑 ▍毛毛