End is near for Caracas' vertical slum

CARACAS, Venezuela - The first of thousands of squatters who transformed a half-built skyscraper into a vertical slum were moved out by armed soldiers Tuesday, marking the beginning of the end for the Tower of David's haphazard community.

Police in riot gear and soldiers with assault rifles stood on side streets as dozens of residents boarded buses for their new government-provided apartments in Cua, about 25 miles south of Caracas.

Ernesto Villegas, the government minister overseeing Caracas' redevelopment, told reporters that the evictions were necessary because the 45-story building in the heart of the capital is unsafe. He said children had fallen to their deaths from the tower, which in some places is missing walls or windows.

Villegas said the tower, initially a symbol of failed capitalism, had gone on to represent community. The squatters' invasion was part of a larger appropriation of vacant buildings encouraged by the late former President Hugo Chavez.

Meant to be the crown jewel of a glittering downtown, the building was abandoned amid a 1990s banking crisis. It was later nicknamed the Tower of David after its financier, David Brillembourg.

By 2007, squatters had claimed everything from the parking garages to the rooftop helipad. They rigged up electricity, opened up stores, and created an internal management system.

On Tuesday, Maria Sevilla, manager of the 28th floor, looked wistfully at the sooty concrete skeleton, with its steep ledges and incomplete stories stippled with satellite dishes.

"What I'll miss the most is the community we built here," she said of the tower, depicted in the U.S. TV show Homeland as a lawless place.

The mood during Tuesday's evictions was subdued.

"I don't know how I'll be able to find a job out there," said Yaritza Casares, 28, leading her 4-year-old daughter through a soaring courtyard. "We were lucky to live here."