Caracas is the largest city in Venezuela, and it is also the capital. This capital city is reported have the highest per capita murder rate in the world (as a country, Venezuela also has the highest murder rate per capita). Murders, violent crimes and lesser crimes all go unsolved. That’s because most of this city’s population lives in poor slums.

There are neighborhoods covering nearly every corner of the city, filled with poverty and squalor. No one there cares to stop the crime, nor do they have the power to. In the middle of Caracas stands a tall building, one of the largest slums in the world and a monument to the life that most people live there.

70% of the city’s population lives in slums.

 

 

 

This is the Torre David, a 45-story unfinished office tower in the middle of the city. During construction, the developer died. Then the economy crashed. It has been unfinished ever since.

 

 

It’s considered the world’s largest vertical slum. It is a 45-story walk up, and there are no elevators. Seniors and the disabled live on the lower floors, and the young and healthy near the top.

 

 

 

The air inside the building can become extremely hot and stuffy, so the inhabitants had to find a way to create airflow. They created crude holes in the wall to help circulate air, but they serve a dual purpose as a secondary path through the building.

 

 

 

Families attempt to make their living spaces feel more like an apartment. Some decorate the walls with newspaper, others use paint. It all depends on what cheap materials are available.

 

 

 

The people living in the slums make the best of their situation.

 

 

 

On each floor of Torre David, there are shops, services and micro-economies.

 

 

 

Slum life is an entirely different style of living. The inhabitants here all have functions and symbiotic relationships with other “tenants.”

 

 

The people that live in these slums have a life that’s so deeply rooted in their life of poverty and the micro-economy of Torre David, it could be impossible for them to leave. Share their situation by sharing this article. More people should realize the kinds of lives people have around the world.

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