Two Malls Tell the Tale of Venezuelan Capital Flight
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/07/3612845/two-malls-tell-a-tale-of-venezuelan.html
Mall was expropriated by Hugo before it even opened. Now being used as a shelter for Ven internally displaced refugees.
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Before a single product was sold, the mall became one of the more than 1,000 businesses and properties Chávez expropriated during his 14 years as president.
Four and a half years later, the mall-that-wasnt takes up an entire city block. Its cordoned off from the public for most of the year. Since the seizure, its parking garage has seen service as a makeshift shelter for Venezuelans who have lost their homes to flooding. Designed to uplift a decaying neighborhood, its brick and granite façades are covered by a mosaic of murals marred with graffiti and campaign slogans.
Compare that to a $200-million sister mall in the Dominican Republic built by the same Venezuelan developer, Sambil.
When it opened earlier this year off a busy highway in the capital of Santo Domingo, President Danilo Medina cut the ribbon. With a 16,000-square-foot indoor aquarium, a grocery store, movie theater and 325 shops, this Sambil mall is thriving.