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Bacchus4.0

(6,837 posts)
Wed Jul 23, 2014, 08:58 AM Jul 2014

Venezuela moves to empty Tower of David skyscraper slum

http://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-moves-empty-squatter-filled-office-tower-172015067.html

Venezuelan authorities on Tuesday began moving residents out of the Tower of David, a Caracas skyscraper so notorious as a haven for squatters and gangs it was depicted in the US TV series "Homeland."

More than 100 families were ushered out of the unfinished 45-story building, the start of an operation by military authorities to clear a longtime symbol of festering poverty and lawlessness in the heart of the Venezuelan capital.

Its construction halted in 1993 after a financial crisis and the death of its owner, investor David Brillembourg, the building was taken over in 2007 by gangs and homeless people with the blessings of the government of President Hugo Chavez.

They remade it into a forbidding warren of makeshift shelters with armed guards -- and commanding views of the city.

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