Gentrification Looms – DiarioVea

See / Yulidis Hernandez Toledo

Los Mercedes, an urbanization located in the municipality of Baruda in the state of Miranda, has gained notoriety in recent weeks due to raids, seizures and arrests carried out in this affluent sector of Greater Caracas, within the framework of Operation Fall Who Falls. The Venezuelan Judiciary is carried out jointly with the various powers of the State.

Heritage work has been carried out in this department for many years. Coordinator of the National Assembly’s (AN) Habitat, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee, Deputy Rigel Sergeant said in an interview. Check dailyReferring to the evictions of tenants that have occurred in the sector and attempts by private construction companies to buy properties from owners to build offices.

According to gentrification, it is defined Royal Spanish Academy on its websiteAn urban area, usually popular or decadent, refers to the displacement of its original population by another with greater purchasing power through a process.

Portal Economiapedia.com For his part, “It is a neologism from English dear ones, of Latin origin, is an English word adapted from Spanish. It refers to both the upper bourgeoisie and the landlords as well as the lower and middle aristocracy. So gentrification refers to the replacement of lower or lower middle class people by others with greater purchasing power, what we know as the upper or upper middle class in our time.

In 2020, Sgt Check daily A total of 12 families live in it building NY, located Mercedes, Baruda Municipality of Miranda State, they were evicted from their homes where they had been living for over 40 years. Among them were elderly men, women and a disabled girl. Today, April 2023, there are no families living in the building, which has been completely taken over by a construction company.

–What is happening in Las Mercedes, where families who lived in rents were evicted to build offices.?

-In our view, what is happening in Los Mercedes is a process of gentrification, which ultimately displaces the inhabitants of a field so that, through processes of zoning, commodification of urban land, it can achieve a larger one. Profit from that land. Usually the people who live in those places, even if they own it, can’t afford it. They cannot hide the high profits that the market forces on you. It took place in Barcelona, ​​Spain; In France, part of Argentina with Mauricio Macri, part went through a process of gentrification. We condemned it. Big real estate agencies started getting involved in 2020 before the pandemic.

From headquarters Check dailyIn Caracas, Sergent, an engineer by profession, explains how the eviction of tenants from a New York building took place within the framework of the gentrification process, which he recalls as part of a plan for 100 historic buildings. Comandante Ederno Hugo Chávez was included in the count published in the official gazette for many tenant owners to sell apartments to their tenants.

In this context, he stressed, tenants are “starting to be pressured by the market, by the big real estate companies.” The company suggested that they were paid to live in the quarter, that there were other urban developments in the quarter, for example outside the city, and that if they did not accept it, they could be evicted. They went about appeasing some (…). In the end it was too strong, because the company began to buy all the surrounding land, and they were the only ones left, which was like an island. They had to agree one way or another.

He recalled that 12 families lived in the building, some of whose members had stayed there for generations. “At some point, one of the tenants was being treated in Cuba, and they put pressure on him. It was a gradual pressure, and unfortunately we didn’t succeed, which shows what gentrification does.

He adds: “That New York building, the last time we saw it, when we went to see it two months ago, the families that lived there are no longer there. The building is currently functioning as a technical office. We were shocked to see that state of affairs,” he said.

He also revealed that there is an architecturally iconic building in Greater Caracas, as it is one of the first constructions created with new technology, where all the residents are owners. . A construction company knocks on owners’ doors to sell them. “The same is happening in the building NY, Convincing them to buy the property and build a boutique hotel on it is a hassle.

He added, “This happened mainly with the approval of the mayors who passed through and the approval of the city council.”

–Are some of the construction companies you investigated or the owners of these companies involved in the corruption cases recently revealed by the government in Las Mercedes?

-There is no coincidence in the names that have come out so far and the buildings that have been taken. In fact, the construction company of the New York building is theoretically another, it is not HP Construction (…) It seems that they are not the same companies.

Meters and meters and vacant offices

According to the parliamentarian, according to the statistics of “large real estate rooms, construction room”, there are “700,000 square meters built” in Las Mercedes, which is equivalent to “about 1,200 empty offices”.

“They will remain empty because they follow the same parameters of supply and demand, and they cannot afford them. So, what those offices were doing, it already creates some doubt that no one is going to buy them. They were also building buildings to live in, but were very luxurious, and in fact it was Los was expanding in Mercedes, and it also reached Bello Monte in the Baruda region».

For Rigel, the process of gentrification occurs with the approval of the municipal council, because the mayor and the mayor and the municipal council are responsible for guaranteeing the social function of the land in the municipality, because it exists. It is called local urban development plan, and it is good, it raises what is the function of covering each and every plot of land; If it is residential, if it is not, if it is mixed, if it is R1, R20, among others».

He adds that “buildings have to adapt to those rules” to build grand buildings. And they are some domes, because they are buildings that are not for people, in the end it is mainly financial business, real estate speculation ».

Construction company owners and directors arrested

On March 20 of this year, within the framework of Operation Fall Who Falls, Hermanos Perdomo, two brothers, owners of HP Construction Company, were building seven (7) luxury towers in the municipality of Los Mercedes, Baruda. Arrest. Attorney General Derek William Sapp said in a press conference on March 25 that Rafael and Roger Perdomo, related businessmen and brothers with the facade of national financial operators to legalize capital, were placed in the order of justice. These structures were among the properties searched and seized by the PNCC.

On April 12, the arrest of Harold Rafael Sosa Padilla, director of municipal engineering at the Baruda Mayor’s Office, was announced. Two days later, the agency’s deputy director, Juan Carlos Posner Pimentel.

Thoroughly investigate the high-rise buildings built in Las Mercedes, in the municipality of Baruda, in the state of Miranda, this is the request made by AN, Deostato Cabello, President of the National Assembly’s Domestic Policy Commission, on Tuesday, April 18, within the framework of the consultation. The Asset Forfeiture Act is a provision that seeks to compensate people for damages caused by corrupt practices in the country.

“That is why you must investigate thoroughly. The buildings here in Los Mercedes were tall because of the urban variables and because of the safety because the airport is nearby. All of a sudden they were growing vitamins in buildings, reinforced from six stories to towers, how was that practice? Whom did they consult?” the Member of Parliament condemned.

A day later on his show By giving a lock No. 427, Capello again referred to the constructions in Las Mercedes. “What’s happening in Baruta in Las Mercedes, there’s been a real estate explosion; before, some buildings with roofs of six or seven floors suddenly started to look like towers, because the municipal rules were changed and violated all the environmental regulations, because of the problem of the La Carlota airport there, they recognized. Towers Construction. It all comes at a price.” A few minutes ago, he read a letter from a “co-operating patriot” who, referring to the arrest of two former officials of the Baruda Mayor’s office, told him: “At this moment, some councilors are engaged in approval. They are not sleeping because they are worried about the announcements of some decrees by the government. I am still on track. , I report ».

Capello then pointed out, “Prisoners talk, everybody talks. How did you build it? Everything is adding up. It is not only there, but in other municipalities and other places ».

Cabello is promoting the approval of the Asset Forfeiture Act, a four-chapter and 46-article protocol that establishes mechanisms for the public’s use of assets seized and recovered from corruption. Kidnapping. There are four priority areas: social, public services, infrastructure and security.

According to Deputy Rigel Sergent, with this regulation, the government will be able to use the towers that HP Construction is building, “so we can give back to the people.”