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Bacchus4.0

(6,837 posts)
Thu Sep 6, 2012, 09:33 PM Sep 2012

Chávez's 'Socialist City' Rises

CAMINO DE LOS INDIOS, Venezuela -- Like most ambitious state projects in oil-rich Venezuela, the new city being built in the thickly wooded mountains here began as a whim of President Hugo Chávez's.

Flying in his helicopter north of Caracas over forests filled with monkeys and tropical birds, the president suddenly had a eureka moment -- he would carve a self-sustaining, self-contained city from the wilderness. Chávez envisioned this as the first of several utopian cities, a bold plan reflecting both Venezuela's capacity for undertaking ambitious projects and the president's growing propensity for making all major decisions.

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The plans for what officials call the "socialist cities" envisioned by Chávez are grand, evoking new cities built in such divergent countries as Brazil and the old Soviet Union. Chávez is relying on Cuban engineering companies and technical advice from Belarus, a former Soviet republic that Carrizales, the housing minister, said has "much experience in agro-industrial cities."

Carrizales said that the city here in the mountainous area of Camino de los Indios, to be called Caribia -- another suggestion by the president -- will be the first of several small cities and urbanization projects across the country. Government planners are considering developments in places as far afield as the oil-producing Orinoco Belt in the north, Ciudad Guayana in the east, itself a planned city from the 1960s, and the plains state of Barinas, where Chávez was raised.

In Caribia, the idea is to build scores of four-story apartment blocks that will eventually house 100,000 people. During a reporter's recent visit here, excavators and earthmovers roared, and construction workers finished the foundations of the first apartment blocks, which are scheduled for completion in the coming weeks. There will also be parks and sports complexes, Carrizales said, as well as schools, hospitals, state-run factories and small fields for crops.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/26/AR2007112602205.html

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Chávez's 'Socialist City' Rises (Original Post) Bacchus4.0 Sep 2012 OP
I hope it works a geek named Bob Sep 2012 #1
Venezuela's Ciudad Caribia: Socialist paradise or ghetto? video Bacchus4.0 Sep 2012 #2
The dream of a socialist city lies in a frail, isolated site Bacchus4.0 Sep 2012 #3

Bacchus4.0

(6,837 posts)
3. The dream of a socialist city lies in a frail, isolated site
Thu Sep 6, 2012, 10:08 PM
Sep 2012
http://www.eluniversal.com/economia/120714/the-dream-of-a-socialist-city-lies-in-a-frail-isolated-site


Nearly a year later, though many of those living in the housing complex, located 1.5 miles west of Viaduct 2 of the highway from the capital Caracas to coastal city La Guaira, are grateful for having a roof over their heads, they suffer the consequences of improvised urban planning plagued by deficient buildings and suffering from utter isolation.

Few dare to criticize the project openly. Those willing to speak up prefer to remain anonymous. In Ciudad Caribia, anyone complaining about urban issues is quickly branded as "squalid" (government's foe) and vetoed, claims Mario, based on his own experience there.

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Families with small children fear that the walls give in because of the rain or wind and place their children's lives at risk. Last July 5, in Building 1, Terrace D, where the wall fell off, construction workers reinforced the structure with blocks and cement. Families whose bathrooms were built using Plycem also expect the same process. "In Building 29, many of the bathrooms are being reinforced, but workers stopped what they were doing because they had not been paid," added an unidentified man.

Many windows have detached and the exterior of certain structures, like Building 29, are suffering from chipped paint on their walls. There is a bakery shop, a school, ATM's, a hardware store in Ciudad Caribia; there also used to be a local eatery, but it went out of business. A drug store is needed as well as someone to drive the ambulance sitting in one of the parkways. Neighbors eagerly await the arrival of the Tritons, F-350 trucks that would improve transportation until the viaduct or roadwork connecting to the highway, currently underway, is completed.


Last week construction staff reinforced Building 1 of Terrace D after an outside Plycem wall fell off on June 2nd (Photos: Gustavo Bandres)



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