Adriana Gutierrez and her son Carlos Adrian watch TV as they sit on their bed in their 24th floor apartment inside the “Tower of David” skyscraper in Caracas February 3, 2014. It boasts a helicopter landing pad, glorious views of the Avila mountain range, and large balconies for weekend barbecues. Yet a 45-storey skyscraper in the center of Venezuela’s capital Caracas is no five-star hotel or swanky apartment block: it is a slum, probably the highest in the world. Dubbed the “Tower of David”, the building was intended to be a shining new financial center but was abandoned around 1994 after the death of its developer – banker and horse-breeder David Brillembourg – and the collapse of the financial sector. Squatters invaded the huge concrete skeleton in 2007, then-president Hugo Chavez’s socialist government turned a blind eye, and now about 3,000 people call the tower their home. Picture taken February 3, 2014. REUTERS/Jorge Silva (VENEZUELA – Tags: BUSINESS SOCIETY POVERTY)
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