Interview With a Bolivarian Miliciana

Her parents were too poor for her to get a proper education, and the schools were houses of neglect. With a family that couldn’t feed itself with love, it was time to move out and get to work. She was only twelve years old and it was 1997.

“I couldn’t continue my studies because there were so many of us at home, so many siblings,” said Yolimar Semprum, who spoke to me from Valencia in the centre of Venezuela.

Her employment was as a nanny for a family that wasn’t Venezuelan. She...