This video came out more than a month ago, but I missed it. At any rate, the Tower of David is the subject of a post over on Slate’s Atlas Obscura blog, which advertises itself as a “guide to the world’s hidden wonders.”
Now, the Tower of David may be many things, but it ain’t “hidden,” and it sure ain’t a “wonder.”
Caracas Chronicles 
Hey, dont be so harsh on them. It is right there in the page:
“TOWER OF DAVID
The world’s tallest slum”
That it is a wonder in the sense of WTF instead of awe doesnt make it any less of a wonder :P
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What makes me sad about this video is that these humans are convinced that this was their only choice and that anyone who attempt to take them out of the Tower is someone who wants to screw them. These people deserve a logical housing solution.
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I watched the piece when it was broadcasted by the BBC…. Received a few calls asking for background from British friends in disbelief that something like that is allowed to happen in a “formal” capital of a relatively known country.
That was a night of reflection for my wife and I: Do our country still exist? The one I was born at least. Sadly the answer is no. Caracas, the city I lived for 29 years is the capital of a different country. Although very familiar, totally different to the country I grew up.
Very sad indeed, La Peste Roja llego y acabo con absolutamente todo
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I love the people saying all that saccarine stuff about beautiful hearts and how all that is effort and value that makes it theirs.
Then you have a plan of a stairway without any kind of wall, rail or anything and kids playing.
There is a world of difference between doing what you must do to survive, and romanticizing it and normalizing it. No, for God’s sake, all that effor and value is WASTED because the country YOU LIVE IN doesnt have ANYTHING resembling a normal situation in which you would be pouring all that effort and value into A PROPER HOME.
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this is the new venezuelan of el SIGLO 21 lets take over an abandoned building and tell the goverment to put light on it
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Pedro, not much different that the venezuela of the 50’s and 60’s when instead of a ‘vacant” buidilng it was vacant cerros around the cities. Populism made it that asking for bloques, cemento, cabillas y laminas de zinc first, and light, water and caminerias alter was our democracy’s attempt at urban planning (Puerto Ordaz being a notable exception…)
The chavizta world view is not very different from adecopeyana guanabana, on steroids, with a heavy dose of resentment and envy, lots of complexes, and one again very notable fluke factor, Oil over USD100 per barrel.
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I agree. Although still a kid, I clearly remember “el Programs de Consolidation de Barrios”, a sort of entity to distribute cement, and construction material in exchange of votes that took place during the early ’70s. The anarchy, the spatial and urban chaos, and the social disarray associated to it still is there, in a way, not very different than what is showed in the video. After living it during most of my youth, seeing Chavez rise to power 30 years later did not look to me as a surprise, but as the consolidation of our national tragedy.
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The life they live may be humbling in some aspects but it is sad to think they must support the government because they believe another one will take them out…Sadder to believe if that is true..But I imagine that all the people who told them they will be forced out are the same ones that ironically keep them there…VZLA has a new reality and has for some time…I believe the opposition know this and would not put them out..I believe they really do want to improve the country as a whole..But maybe I live in the same fantasy as the people who live there expressing the views through rose colored sunglasses about what “Chavismo” has done for them..It is not so much the political parties but the mentality behind the person IN the political party that decides whether they advance in life or stay put.. Either way, Dios Los Bendiga todos alli en este Torre.
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