The year was 1962 and the Kennedy administration was desperate to swing(使摆动；影响（结果）) Brazil’s congressional elections against its leftwing president, João Goulart, as a way of(作为……的一种方式) countering the supposed(所谓的；假想的) communist threat sweeping(席卷；扫荡) a region the US considered its back yard(后院；势力范围).
那是1962年，肯尼迪政府急于扭转巴西国会选举的结果，以对抗其左翼总统若昂·古拉特，以此作为反击所谓共产主义威胁的一种方式，这种威胁正席卷美国视为后院的地区。
Historians say that in the lead-up(准备阶段；前期) to the vote, the CIA and the Department of State secretly channelled(输送；引导) millions of dollars to opposition candidates and a group tasked with(被委派任务) spreading rightwing propaganda and stirring up(煽动；激起) unrest.
历史学家称，在投票前夕，中央情报局和国务院秘密向反对派候选人和一个负责传播右翼宣传、煽动动乱的团体输送了数百万美元。
“There was a very heavy-handed(高压的；笨拙的) intervention here by the US government,” said Chico Rubens Paiva, a political activist whose congressman grandfather Rubens Paiva investigated Washington’s meddling(干预；干涉) during a 1963 parliamentary inquiry into the conspiracy(阴谋；共谋).
“美国政府在这里进行了非常高压的干预，”政治活动家奇科·鲁本斯·派瓦说，他的国会议员祖父鲁本斯·派瓦在1963年对阴谋的议会调查中调查了华盛顿的干预行为。