At least 14 apartment towers in La Guaira collapsed during the June 24 earthquakes. More than 6,500 people died, and more than 17,000 lost their homes, after scientists warned the government against building along the coastal strip. Gas tanks exploded and fires broke out as hundreds remained trapped. An Associated Press investigation found that the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez hadn’t addressed why so many buildings fell and so many people died.
Warnings Before Construction
The towers stood on silty soil that can amplify earthquake shaking, near a major fault line and a mountain range associated with repeated disasters. Carlos Valdés, head of the seismology department at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said officials were “defying nature” by building there.
The decisions began after mudslides and heavy rain displaced more than 100,000 people across Venezuela in 2010. In 2011, President Hugo Chávez directed the government to expand public housing for people displaced by floods and mudslides. Many had lived in public schools, government buildings, military facilities and the presidential palace. With land in short supply, the government expropriated property, and Chávez encouraged Venezuelans to help the state identify abandoned lots.
Trade and watchdog organizations raised concerns about compliance with building standards, seismic-resistant design requirements, and the quality of cement and steel. It remains unknown whether contractors followed Venezuela’s building codes, whether officials conducted soil studies before construction, or whether they ignored those studies.
The region had already suffered a magnitude-6.6 earthquake in 1967, which damaged buildings in Caraballeda and Caracas and prompted quake-resistant construction guidelines. Floods and mudslides in 1999 killed tens of thousands. After those disasters, Chávez’s government chose engineer and then-science minister Carlos Genatios to lead a reconstruction plan. His team worked with local and international experts on a hazard-mitigation program that included coastal land-use restrictions, mainly to reduce flood risks and, to a lesser extent, earthquake risks.
Genatios said scientists warned officials that the area’s history of floods and mudslides increased earthquake dangers: buildings would stand on loose, rocky soil deposited over centuries. The San Sebastian Fault runs offshore and beneath La Guaira state.
A State Housing Mission Under Scrutiny
The Great Housing Mission Venezuela program built the Caraballeda towers, which resembled East Germany’s prefabricated high-rises. Each was called an “O-P-P,” shortened from “O-P-P-P-E,” the Spanish acronym for the office Chávez assigned to carry out the program. All but four of the 43 towers built in La Guaira state stood in Caraballeda. At least 13 collapsed in the earthquakes.
A state-owned newsletter described one tower as a building that “proudly stands as a symbol of revolutionary justice.” A government newsletter published Sept. 17, 2013, showed proposed construction of the towers.
Residents welcomed apartments with bedrooms and bathrooms of their own, just a short walk from the beach. Many had lived with relatives or in shelters after the 2010 rains. But the buildings soon presented serious problems: an almost complete absence of potable water, broken elevators, and trash chutes that attracted rats and cockroaches.
Experts said towers between 10 and 20 floors could sway at the same rate as seismic waves, a phenomenon called resonance. That can make a building sway farther and longer, putting additional pressure on columns and increasing the likelihood of damage and collapse.
Missing Records, Unanswered Questions
The government hadn’t released blueprints, soil studies, inspection records or the “descriptive memorandum,” which should contain engineering and architectural specifications. Francisco “Farruco” Sesto, who headed the office responsible for Chávez’s housing mission, didn’t respond to an AP interview request.
Less than two weeks after the earthquakes, Sesto told a government-affiliated influencer that land selected for public housing had undergone soil studies, but offered no proof. He called criticism an “insidious, malicious campaign” against the housing mission. He also said the private sector built most state housing: “The state acts as the great organizer — the great planner, if you will … Who performs these soil studies? Primarily, specialized private companies,” Sesto said.
Residents cited Styrofoam found in the rubble as evidence, in their view, that the government used substandard materials to cut costs. They also pointed to documented corruption schemes in which officials and contractors colluded to overbill the state, use cheaper materials than reported, and keep the difference. The government hadn’t released information about on-site forensic analyses that experts said were necessary to determine causes and responsibility.
Cleanup and rebuilding were underway, including demolitions using explosives. Thousands of displaced people had since lived in shelters, encampments or on sidewalks near their former homes, while some received public housing in Caracas. Weeks after the earthquakes, the government said it had found land in La Guaira where construction could soon begin. Experts urged care in rebuilding and warned against repeating earlier mistakes. Valdés asked: “The question here is: at what cost?” He added: “I would put it another way: how much is a life worth?”