VOA常速英语2018--美呼吁古巴政府倾听民众诉求（在线收听）

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly in September, President Donald Trump said that the Cuban government is delivering only anguish and failure to its people.

9月，在向联合国大会发表讲话时，特朗普总统表示，现在古巴政府给其子民带来的只有痛苦和挫败。

The State Department's recently published 2017 report on human rights conditions in Cuba describes the Cuban regime's lack of respect for the rights of the Cuban people.

最近国务院发布了古巴2017年的人权状况报告，其中描述了古巴政府不尊重古巴人权的情况。

The report notes that the Communist party remained the only legal party in the country. Elections were neither free nor fair. Candidates were prescreened by the Communist party and the government blocked candidates not approved by the party.

该报告指出，古巴共产党依然是古巴唯一的合法政党。古巴选举既不自由，也不公正。总统候选人要先经过古巴共产党的预选，而凡是不为古巴共产生认可的候选人都无法参选。

The most significant human rights issues, the State Department said, included torture of perceived political opponents; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; politically motivated, sometimes violent, detentions and arrests; a complete absence of judicial independence; and trial processes that effectively put the burden on the defendant to prove innocence.

国务院指出，古巴最严重的人权问题包括虐待其视为眼中钉的政敌；监狱环境恶劣，危及囚犯生命；出于政治意图监禁并逮捕公民，有时甚至采用暴力手段；完全没有司法独立；审判流程要求被告自证清白。

Freedom of expression was limited to expression that conforms to the goals of socialist society, with strict censorship, punishing even distribution of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

所谓的自由言论只限于说符合古巴社会主义社会目标的话，所有言论都要经过严格的审查，《世界人权宣言》也不得人手一份。

The Cuban government controlled all forms of media. The internet was restricted, as were academic freedom and the rights of assembly and association. Government-organized mobs were used to assault and disperse those who assembled peacefully.

古巴政府控制了各种形式的媒体传播。互联网受限，学术自由、集会结社的权利也受限。政府组织了乌合之众来袭击并驱散和平集会的民众。

Earlier this month, Raul Castro, who took over as Cuba's leader from his brother Fidel in 2006, stepped down from the presidency, handing the presidential baton to his designated successor and longtime Communist party official Miguel Diaz-Canel. Could this transition possibly mean an end to the human rights abuses described by the State Department and endured for decades by the Cuban people?

本月初，2006年从自己哥哥手中接过总统职位的劳尔 卡斯特罗(Raul Castro)退位，将总统一职交给了钦定的接班人，此人就是古巴共产党长期的官员米格尔 迪亚斯 卡内尔(Miguel Diaz-Canel)。不知这次职位交接意味着践踏人权行径的结束，也就是如国务院所愿结束了古巴人民几十年来的水深火热。

At a press briefing, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert pointed out that Cuban citizens had no real power to affect the outcome of this undemocratic transition process. The United States, she declared, is disappointed that the Cuban Government opted to silence independent voices and maintain its repressive monopoly on power, rather than allow its people a meaningful choice through free, fair and competitive elections.

在一次新闻发布会上，国务院发言人希瑟 诺尔特(Heather Nauert)指出，古巴百姓没有实权，无法影响非民主交接进程的结果。她表示，美国很失望，因为古巴政府选择湮没独立的声音，选择保持对权力的压迫性垄断，而不是选择让子民通过自由、公正、有竞争性的选举来做出有意义的选择。

Cuba's new president should take concrete steps to improve the lives of the Cuban people, to respect human rights and to cease repression and allow greater political and economic freedoms, said Spokesperson Nauert, We urge the new president to listen and respond to Cuban citizens' demands for a more prosperous, free, and democratic Cuba.

古巴的新任总统应该采取切实措施，提升古巴民生，尊重人权，停止压迫，实现更广阔的政治自由和经济自由，发言人诺尔特表示：我们敦促新任古巴总统倾听并对古巴人民的要求作出回应。古巴民众要求的是一个更加繁荣、自由、民主的古巴。