High-rise 'slum' in Venezuela to be shuttered

For more than 4,400 squatters in Caracas, Venezuela, the time has come to move on. An unfinished skyscraper that has stood in the city for over a decade has become home to not only people, but shops, basketball courts and prayer meetings.

Authorities have decided to move the squatters out, allegedly to investigate the structural soundness of the tower, which is the country's third-tallest skyscraper, the Miami Herald reports. 

The tower, called Torre David, is 45 stories of incomplete concrete, glass and steel. Construction began on the building in 1990, but screeched to a halt when financial crisis struck Venezuela in 1994. The building was about 60 percent complete at the time, and construction never resumed. 

Over time, it became a vertical city for squatters. The community really kicked off in 2007, when an evangelical minister led the occupation of the building.

There are rumors that the tower is being cleared because Chinese developers bought the site, but the government says they are unfounded.