Two men watch the rain over Caracas as they await their relocation from the 27th floor of the tower.

Andreína Contreras, a 26-year-old mother of two, lived until this week in the “Tower of David,” in Caracas, Venezuela, which has been described as the world’s tallest slum, because it is situated in an abandoned skyscraper.

She is among an estimated 1,150 families living in the tower who are to be removed and relocated permanently this week, seven years after the officially named Torre Confinanzas was first occupied as a result of Venezuela’s financial crisis — and with the explicit encouragement of the government of then-President Hugo Chavez.

A family saying goodbye to their home on the 27th floor. All photos by Alejandro Cegarra.

“In the beginning everything was awful, I had to sleep in a tent for three months,” said Contreras, who moved into the Tower of David six years ago from an outlying area in Caracas. “The sewage reached up to my knees in some places. Little by little, I made my space and the conditions improved.”

With time, the Tower of David was recognized for its relative order in Caracas, despite stigmas that residents faced for living there, and claims that it was a magnet for criminality. Safety concerns prompted authorities to seek the slum’s closure, as some of the floors in the building lack outer walls and windows....Continue Reading

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