Thousands evicted from world's tallest slum in Caracas, Venezuela
Thousands evicted by soldiers and riot police from half-built tower taken over by squatters
The beginning of the end came for the world's tallest slum this week as officials began evicting thousands of squatters from a half-built skyscraper in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
Police in riot gear and soldiers with Kalashnikov assault rifles stood on side streets as dozens of residents boarded buses for their new government-provided apartments 37km south of the city in Cua.
Ernesto Villegas, the government minister overseeing Caracas' redevelopment, said residents could not be allowed to stay because the 45-storey building, was unsafe.
What I will miss the most is the community we built here
He said children have fallen to their deaths from the tower, which in some places is missing walls or windows.
The damp, foul-smelling concrete lobby attested to the lack of working plumbing.
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.
Villegas said the tower started its life as a symbol of failed capitalism, but it later came to represent the power of community.