美国对委内瑞拉议会发生斗殴表示忧虑

 　　美国对委内瑞拉议会发生斗殴表示忧虑

        WASHINGTON, May 1 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government on Wednesday condemned¹ Tuesday's physical clashes taking place in the parliament of Venezuela, describing the violent acts as " particularly inappropriate."

　　"Let me state clearly, violence has no place in representative democratic system, and is particularly inappropriate within the national assembly," said State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell at a briefing.

　　"We're deeply concerned by the violence that occurred," said Ventrell, urging all parties to refrain from violence.

　　Physical clashes broke out in the Venezuelan parliament Tuesday, with a number of legislators getting injured, amid heightened tension over the country's disputed presidential election result. Opposition² and ruling party members traded blows during the brawl³, with each side blaming the other for starting the violence.

　　Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) on April 15 officially declared Nicolas Maduro to be president elect for the 2013-2019 presidential term, after confirming his victory in the presidential election race held the day before and rejecting the claims of fraud from Henrique Capriles, presidential candidate of the opposition coalition⁴. Maduro was sworn in as the new Venezuelan president on April 19.

　　Washington, which has not openly recognized Maduro as Venezuela 's new president, has been pushing for a recount of the presidential votes instead.

　　CNE on Monday began a partial recount of votes cast in the contested presidential elections.

　　"In terms of generating greater confidence in the vote outcome, we thought that it was good for the Venezuelan institutions and for the Venezuelan people to pursue that and to look into irregularities," Ventrell said at a news briefing held Wednesday, referring to the ongoing⁵ recount.

　　He also signaled a subtle change of tone on recognition of Maduro as Venezuela's new president.

　　"The bottom line is that there's not this sort of sense of legal recognition when we say, 'You're recognized as the sovereign leader of a country,'" said Ventrell. "We have a bilateral⁶ relationship with the government, and that bilateral relationship continues."

　　U.S.-Venezuela relations have been strained in recent years, and the two countries have not had each other's ambassadors since July 2010. Maduro and his predecessor⁷, the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, have regularly accused Washington of seeking to destabilize their oil-rich country.

1 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

2 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。

3 brawl   

n.大声争吵，喧嚷；v.吵架，对骂

参考例句：

• They had nothing better to do than brawl in the street.他们除了在街上斗殴做不出什么好事。
• I don't want to see our two neighbours engaged in a brawl.我不希望我们两家吵架吵得不可开交。

4 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。

5 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

6 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

7 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。