The last five stories of the Torre de David in Caracas have tilted 25 degrees following the largest earthquake to hit Venezuela in 100 years. The well-known building gained infamy as an unprecedented vertical "slum" when its construction was abandoned and squatters began to inhabit the unfinished structure.
The 190-meter skyscraper with 45 stories became Latin America's 8th tallest tower in the 1990s, but it was never completed. Officially known as the Centro Financiero Confinanzas when construction began in 1990, the project succumbed to Venezuela's 1994 banking crisis.
Thought it was abandoned for years, families began to occupy the tower in 2007, making it the world's tallest squat. Five years later, Urban-Think Tank, Justin McGuirk and Iwan Baan won the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion for their research and exhibition centered on the Torre de David.
In 2014, thousands of inhabitants were removed from the tower and relocated to Cúa, a city 53 km outside of Caracas. Since then, the building remains empty and news outlets reported no injuries or fatalities inside of the tower.
In terms of next steps, Hernán Mateo, the director of Civil Protection from the municipality of Libertador, advised that the building was at risk of possible collapse.
Via El Universal, CNN en Español, RT.
