Caracas squatters in real Tower of David might not welcome Homeland's Nicholas Brody

It is home to more than 3,000 squatters, many of its 45 floors are open to the elements and it is ruled over by a former convict who once traded on his reputation as a violent criminal.

Now the half-finished Tower of David skyscraper in Caracas has acquired international fame, after being portrayed in the US television drama Homeland as both refuge and prison for Nicholas Brody, the fictional former US marine on the run as a wanted al-Qaeda terrorist.

Apparently trapped in a world of gun-wielding thugs and drug abuse, a shaven-headed Brody, played by the English actor Damian Lewis, watches in horror as the gang protecting him throw a thief from a floor halfway up the tower.

That episode struck a chilling chord with residents of the building that has become Venezuela's real-life homeland for the homeless: it was, they say, just how things used to be. "If someone caused problems, pushing them off a higher storey or shooting them would have been the way of dealing with it," said Elvin Marchan, the "general manager" of the world's tallest slum.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/10405297/Caracas-squatters-in-real-Tower-of-David-might-not-welcome-Homelands-Nicholas-Brody.html