These homes rose out of Venezuela president Hugo Chávez’s socialist revolution. Now they’re rubble

L.a Guaira, Venezuela: The apartments here once signaled a new beginning; It was part of the iconic “Great Housing Mission” that delivered government-built apartments to thousands of families after President Hugo Chavez’s socialist revolution.

Many of the program’s beneficiaries were displaced by natural disasters, including Venezuela’s worst floods and landslides in 1999, which killed tens of thousands of people in the coastal state. Here in the Caraballeda neighborhood, hundreds of families moved into this complex of four 12-story apartment buildings that the government called a “dignified” home.

Now the houses have turned into piles of cement and rubble. Back-to-back earthquakes hit Venezuela on Wednesday evening (Caracas time), leveling three out of four buildings, destroying at least 960 apartments and burying an unknown and unimaginable number of people.

There was a thick, fetid odor of dust and smoke in the air. Several charred corpses lay on the ground; their skin was blackened and peeling. A crushed body hung between two concrete slabs from one of the buildings; his torso, arms, and face were swollen and burned.

Daylenys Rodriguez, 26, cried out, clutching her head. “My daughters,” he called out to no one in particular. There were three and seven of them.

“I know they’re there,” he groaned. “These are the walls of my house.”

Venezuelan officials said on Saturday that at least 1,430 people were killed and 3,238 injured in the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that occurred 160 kilometers west of Caracas.

Rescuers had begun to arrive from the United States and other countries, but to many here they still seemed distant. For more than two days, rescue efforts at the housing mission in the Caraballeda neighborhood have been led by local emergency responders, volunteers and neighbors who do not have the heavy machinery needed to demolish the ruins.

Flames broke out amidst the wreckage, but no firefighters came to extinguish them; Most of the fire trucks in La Guaira were not working before the earthquakes.

The deepest economic collapse documented outside of wartime – the result of socialist government mismanagement exacerbated by US-imposed economic sanctions – left the country ill-equipped to respond.

Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodriguez said that the sector that contracted the most during the years-long crisis was construction.

Interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who has nominally headed the government since the US military captured President Nicolás Maduro in January, has asked the private sector to provide construction machinery.

“This is actually the sector that could provide you with the capacity to respond, and it is the sector that has completely collapsed in the last decade,” Francisco Rodriguez said.

But the government’s mistakes were evident long before the worst of the economic crisis, as the country was rebuilding after the 1999 floods.

This disaster occurred in the first year of Chavez’s presidency, at the birth of Venezuela’s socialist state. Alejandro Linayo, a systems engineer and earthquake risk reduction expert working for the Chavez government, said the government has initiated studies and updated laws and building regulations to prepare for the next natural disaster.

However, Linayo said these laws and rules are only loosely followed and enforced.

Chavez ordered the establishment of the Great Housing Mission before Venezuela’s 2012 elections. The project continued after his death in 2013.

Most of the buildings were built in a hurry, according to Augusto Rivera, an architect and professor who studies the residential mission program at the Central University of Venezuela. Some lacked appropriate geotechnical investigations; others had poor ventilation or lighting.

“Instead of building homes that offer all the benefits a home deserves, they had to meet a political deadline,” Rivera said.

“They were certainly quick to get these ready,” said Rodriguez. “It’s no surprise to me that they cut a lot of corners in doing so.”

Kimberlyng Leon, 39, had been living in a 10th-floor apartment since the building opened. He conveyed his demand and went to political rallies on behalf of the government. He got the call in 2014.

Leon was assured that the building was earthquake resistant. When he arrived, it was still under construction. Light bulbs and electrical outlets were missing; water leaked. But he stayed. “It was bad quality,” he said. “But that was my place.”

The government said it has built more than 4 million houses under the Great Housing Mission. Rodriguez said the claim was impossible: construction reduced gross domestic product by 91 percent.

“The buildings they built could not withstand a disaster of this magnitude,” Rodriguez said. “Their construction, like much of what they did, was unsustainable.”

Family members and neighbors dug through the rubble with bare hands throughout Thursday. A pickup truck with masked police officers in tactical gear slowly passed through the area Thursday night. With the help of a nurse and others, they piled the bodies into the vehicle. This was the only official presence in sight.

Daiver Campos, 23, was on vacation with his girlfriend when the earthquakes occurred. He rushed home and spent hours digging and shouting the names of his family members.

He learned that his father, mother and sister were outside when the building collapsed. But two younger brothers, aged eight and three, were at home. He still hadn’t found them Thursday evening.

It was neighbor after neighbor.

“You could hear screams coming from downstairs,” he said. “Two children died in my arms while I was trying to get them out.”

Others died when gas canisters and cars caught fire.

The excavator, the first heavy machine to arrive at the site, appeared around 4pm on Friday, almost 48 hours after the earthquakes.

Four women were leaning against the last standing building on the street; The one-story school was now used as a morgue.

cried 18-year-old Aurora Alamo. His mother was lying under the rubble. They had been planning to move out of their leaky apartment for years. “It’s like we’re a government experiment,” Alamo said.

Leon’s daughter survived. She was staying on the top floor of the building with her boyfriend. When the earthquake hit, they hugged, jumped into bed and closed their eyes. They could feel each floor collapsing beneath them.

But his two young sons were still inside. He planned to stay until he found them.

Washington Post

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