The Collapse Of Caracas

A view west across Caracas, which was once a buzzing metropolis. Photograph: Tom Phillips

Tom Phillips, The Guardian: The fallen metropolis: the collapse of Caracas, the jewel of Latin America

Once a thriving, glamorous city, Venezuela’s capital is buckling under hyperinflation, crime and poverty

A portrait of Hugo Chávez and a Bolivarian battle cry greet visitors to the Boyacá viewpoint in the mountains north of Caracas. “It is our duty to find one thousand ways and more to give the people the life that they need!”

But as Venezuela buckles, Chávez’s pledge sounds increasingly hollow. Vandals have splashed paint into the comandante’s face and beneath him Venezuela’s capital is dying.

“A ghost town,” laments Omar Lugo, director of news website El Estímulo, during a night-time driving tour of a once-buzzing metropolis being eviscerated by the country’s collapse. “It pains me so much to see Caracas like this.”

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