This might seem surprising, because most countries south of the Río Bravo (known to North Americans as the Rio Grande) moved from right-wing dictatorship to democracy in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Some of these democracies were initially imperfect, to be sure, but optimists hoped that it was only a matter of time until all elections would be fair and restrictions on civil liberties fully lifted.
这可能令人惊奇，因为在20世纪八九十年代，大部分布拉沃河（Rio Bravo，北美称为格兰德河，Rio Grande）以南国家从右翼独裁过渡到民主。平心而论，其中一些民主国家诞生之初并不完美，但乐观者认为所有选举都能公正进行、对公民自由的限制完全消除只是时间问题。