巴西总统路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦宣布，他现在支持将“恶劣”犯罪的刑事责任年龄从18岁降至16岁，这一决定逆转了长期政策，被广泛视为一次绝望的选举赌注。
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has announced that he now supports lowering the age of criminal responsibility for “heinous” crimes from 18 to 16, reversing a longstanding policy in what is widely seen as a desperate electoral gambit.
卢拉在周四晚上接受TV Globo采访时宣布了这一转变，而总统决选将在一周多之后举行。现任总统面临艰巨挑战，需要推翻其对手、极右翼参议员弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗在第一轮选举中的胜利，后者目前在民调中略占优势。
The U-turn, which Lula announced during a Thursday night interview with TV Globo, comes with the presidential runoff in just over a week. The incumbent faces an uphill battle to overturn the first-round victory of his opponent, the far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who remains slightly ahead at the polls.
该参议员及其父亲、前总统雅伊尔·博尔索纳罗长期主张降低刑事责任年龄——他们希望将其降至14岁而非16岁——但卢拉及其政党一直反对这一改变。
Both the senator and his father, the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, have long supported lowering the age of criminal responsibility – they want it reduced to 14 rather than 16 – but Lula and his party have always opposed the change.
在多次民意调查之后，本周最新的一项调查显示，80%的人口支持降低刑事责任年龄，卢拉表示：“作为巴西公民，我的观点是，对于任何和每一起恶劣犯罪，我支持降低刑事责任年龄。”当记者问他是否指将年龄降至16岁时，他回答“是”。
After repeated opinion polls, the latest of them this week, showed that 80% of the population supports lowering the age, Lula said: “My view, as a Brazilian citizen, is that for any and every heinous crime, I am in favour of lowering the age.”He answered “yes” when the reporter asked whether he meant lowering it to 16.
巴西法律将“恶劣”犯罪定义为范围广泛的行为，从谋杀和强奸到假药和贩毒——大约四分之一的巴西81.6万名服刑人员正是因贩毒罪被监禁。
The list of crimes classified as “heinous” under Brazilian law is extensive, ranging from murder and rape to the falsification of medicines and drug trafficking – the offence for which about a quarter of the 816,000 people serving prison sentences in Brazil were incarcerated.
人权组织和安全专家长期批评降低刑事责任年龄的提议，认为这些措施对遏制暴力作用甚微，却可能增加巴西监狱超载情况下有组织犯罪的招募。
Human rights organisations and security experts have long criticised proposals to lower the age of criminal responsibility, arguing that they do little to tackle violence while increasing recruitment into organised crime in Brazil’s overcrowded prisons.
周四，在卢拉接受采访之前，该提案曾在参议院进行过讨论。巴西天主教主教会议（巴西天主教主教组织）曾批评该提案“未能解决暴力的根源”，并补充称，让年轻人“过早地进入监狱系统往往会加深暴力和排斥的循环，削弱他们的康复”。
On Thursday, before Lula’s interview, the proposal had been discussed in the senate. The Episcopal Conference of Brazil, a Catholic bishops’ organisation, had criticised it for “not addressing the causes of violence”, adding that placing young people “prematurely in the prison system tends to deepen cycles of violence and exclusion, undermining their rehabilitation”.
专栏作家若西亚斯·德索萨在其UOL专栏中写道，卢拉通过逆转自己长期持有的立场，“决定改变自己。这并非寻常的转变。在公共安全问题上，卢拉彻底改变了自己。他开始捍卫他一直以来所反对的东西。”现任总统在最近几天里加大了力度，试图通过吸引独立选民和犹豫不决的选民来扭转博尔索纳罗在第一轮投票中以220万票的领先优势。
The columnist Josias de Souza wrote in his UOL column that, by reversing his longstanding position, Lula “decided to change himself. It was no ordinary transformation. On public security, Lula turned himself inside out. He began defending what he had always rejected.”The incumbent has doubled down in recent days in an effort to overturn Bolsonaro’s 2.2 million-vote first-round lead by appealing to independents and undecided voters.
他已获得国会批准实行更短的工作周——这是博尔索纳罗自己曾经反对的提案，但在最后一刻，当该提案看来即将通过时，他才做出了支持的转变——以及为微型企业主提供债务减免，并承诺周末免费公共交通。
He has secured congressional approval for a shorter working week – a proposal on which Bolsonaro himself U-turned and decided to support at the last minute, when it appeared ready to pass – and debt relief for microentrepreneurs, as well as promising free public transport on weekends.