Spanish daily newspaper ABC.es reports that some of the worst quake damage in Venezuela is concentrated in Caraballeda and Catia La Mar, where high-rise towers built under the Great Housing Mission Venezuela, or Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela (GMVV), were reduced to rubble.

The Chávez-era socialist housing program is now facing scrutiny after the outlet noted, "The explanation given by engineers and construction specialists is that low-quality materials were used in the Chavista Housing Mission, without supervision and without applying anti-seismic standards." 

GMVV was later expanded by the socialist Maduro regime without regard for the quality of building materials or anti-seismic standards, leaving only a handful of the 193 buildings in one housing complex in quake-ravaged Catia La Mar standing. 

"None of the official buildings would withstand an engineering inspection, much less an earthquake of magnitude 7.5, like the one last Wednesday," the outlet stated.

Transparency Venezuela has previously alleged widespread corruption in the socialist housing program, including unfinished or failed projects linked to foreign contractors from Chavismo-aligned countries.

The outlet said many of these social housing projects "collapsed like sandcastles," and the head of the Chilean rescue teams on the ground told AFP News last Friday that there is "little chance of finding people alive."

The collapse of Venezuela's GMVV is becoming another case study in how socialist corruption fails at delivering even the most basic needs for the people. What was sold by the left-wing government as housing for all now appears to have produced high-rise death traps, built with low-quality materials, weak oversight and inadequate seismic standards. 

The result is grim: 1,500 dead, 50,000 missing...

Yet another example of socialist governance has instead become a symbol of state failure and corruption.