free pdf right here - The Crime Factory

CRIME FACTORYISSUE FOURTEENmore oil underground thanSaudi Arabia. It also has vastdeposits of gold and otherminerals in hot demand. Whenoil prices rise, so does steeland brick. Not surprisingly,the downside of hitching longtermurban plans to short-termcommodity prices means thatwhen oil falls, buildings canremain unfinished. That wasthe fate of the Helicoide, afamous landmark on the skylineof Roca Tarpeya in the SanAgustin parish of Caracas.For years it stoodunfinished like a sunparchedpiece of Babylonianarchitecture before it finallyhoused the hated formerintelligence agency knownby its Spanish acronym asDISIP.This rush to buildbigger and better in Caracashas created a confusingwarren of urban districtsamong crime-ridden “informal”settlements like the hillsideshantytowns where the policewon’t go without armoredcars and riot gear. Worn-outapartment blocks stand besideglitzy skyscrapers and therustic remnants of colonialneighborhoods. Caracas’hodgepodge of architecturalinfluences and styles hashelped to make this frenziedand willy-nilly city a perfecturban killing ground.I saw a lot of this firsthand. I arrived in Venezuelain 1994 - fresh out of college- at a time when the country’seconomic foundations werebeing worn away. Later, itwas easy for me to understandthe former coup leader HugoChavez’s popularity afterhe was released from jailin 1994 and began buildinghis grassroots politicalmovement. Chavez had promisedto be a renovating force innational politics where twoparties - the AD (AccionDemocratica) and COPEI parties- had essentially shared inthe pillage of Venezuela’s21