The Tower of David: Venezuela's vertical slum - Newsnight

In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez has been dead for a year. Since then the country has been engulfed by runaway inflation, rampant crime, food and housing shortages. The crisis is clearest in one building in downtown Caracas. It's called the Tower of David - an unfinished skyscraper planned as a glittering monument to capitalism, It's now home to thousands of squatters. They police it, renovate its rooms, and plumb it into the city's electricity and water, and all for peppercorn rent. Olly Lambert has been to the Tower. He met three of its residents: Elvys Merclan, elected president of the tower cooperative, Miriam Figueroa - a shop keeper on the 22nd floor, and Yecenia Polanco, a young mum with 5 children.
Follow @BBCNewsnight on Twitter
/ bbcnewsnight
Like BBC Newsnight on Facebook
/ bbcnewsnight