CARACAS | ƒserI am ready to die for my country ”. Hairdresser in Caracas, Ismaira Figueroa, 43, is also a sniper in the Bolivarian militia, a body made up of civilians attached to the Venezuelan army.
“I am convinced that I was born for that and if I have to die of it, it happens quickly, all of a sudden!” she says, rifle wedged between cheek and shoulder, face painted with mud, during military exercises near Caracas simulating an “armed invasion”.
When not practicing marksmanship, this single mother of four works in a hair salon. She also volunteers in her neighborhood and is part of a biker group. In her spare time, the master sergeant also says she enjoys knitting.
In her house in the La Palomera district of Caracas sits a photo of the late Socialist President Hugo Chavez (1999-2013), whom she idolizes.
It was for him that she joined the Bolivarian militia created in 2009, she admits, nicely made up.
She remembers having tried, at 16, to see him, without success, when he was released from prison in 1994. Another time, perched on a tree, she managed to “touch his finger”. In 2002, she took to the streets to “save” Hugo Chavez after the coup that overthrew him for two days.
The Bolivarian militia now comprises 4.5 million civilians. It is considered, along with the army, as the main support for the regime of current President Nicolas Maduro.
Hugo Chavez’s successor regularly claims that the United States and Colombia, his biggest regional rivals, are plotting an attack to assassinate him and that the country has already foiled an attempted “sea invasion” .
He has repeatedly put the Bolivarian militia on “high alert” in order to deal with possible intrusions into the country.
“The militia is a vegetable seller or a woman who walks her dog … it is a teacher, a taxi driver, a nurse”, boasts Ismaira Figueroa who, when she joined this armed body in 2010, was not planning to become a sniper. Her unit commander convinced her.
“It’s a predominantly male world,” she notes. “Men don’t really like it when you’re in their zone, when you’re a better sniper than them … it arouses jealousy.”
“Never let go”
In a file, she carefully keeps her diplomas and a target: the one on which she shot to obtain, in 2016, her sniper diploma.
“Before you pull the trigger, you have to clear your mind and focus on your breathing,” she explains. “You have to relax and let the shot surprise you”.
Ismaira is not allowed to speak about the operations in which she participated. She claims to have “taken no one’s life”, but says she is ready to do so.
Before becoming a member of the militia, she belonged to the Bolivarian Circles, also created by Hugo Chavez to support his “revolution”, but today less widespread and accused of violent attacks against opponents of the regime, which she denies.
In Plaza Bolivar in Baruta, a district of Caracas where different social backgrounds mix, Ismaira greets neighbors, the police and passing motorcyclists.
She says she generally has good relations with both Chavistas and their opponents, although she claims to have already lost a job because of her support for Hugo Chavez.
Would she see herself as a municipal councilor or a neighborhood mayor? “Never in politics,” she responds spontaneously.
Rather, she aspires to climb the ranks in the militia, where she earns less than $ 4 a month.
She does not complain about her meager remuneration, welcomes the “social bonuses” that the government distributes, and attributes the serious economic crisis that the country is going through to international sanctions, including an American embargo on Venezuelan oil.
“The hungrier I am, the more I love the revolution. It’s not being masochistic, it’s that in a battle, you must never give up, ”she said brazenly.