MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Closure of Venezuela's main bridge threatens economy

Venezuela faces a serious economic and logistic challenge following the closure to all traffic of the bridge on the freeway linking Caracas to the country's main Caribbean seaport, its busiest air terminal and the beaches most visited by Caracas residents.

Structural problems in the pillars holding the bridge which became evident following heavy rains over the weekend, forced authorities to ban all traffic with no short term solution in sight given the lack of alternative highways. Other options are limited and costly because of the long circuits snaking along mountains with some of them dangerous and unable to handle heavy traffic.

Antonio Rodriguez, governor of the state of Vargas warned of the economic impact that closure of the freeway will have, due to the "exorbitant fares" of transport providers on the roundabout alternative routes, as well as the almost total loss of Caracas beach goers' tourism.

Governor Rodriguez announced that the critical situation can last for over a month while a provisional bridge is erected to replace the weakened span in danger of collapse, but the construction of a new, permanent bridge will demand at least 15 months.

Another delicate and immediate problem is the evacuation of thousands of families living in densely populated slum dwellings on the precarious, crumbling hillsides in the bridge's surrounding area. Apparently most dwellers in spite of the danger refuse to abandon their homes.

The central government has offered housing in other parts of Venezuela to the poor neighborhoods built on the slopes of the Avila Mountain or place them in temporary shelters while new homes are built for them in the same area but on more solid ground.

However, most families apparently remain unconvinced of the government's generosity or ability to honour promises.

"We've come to mediate and to guarantee that the government will take care of those who lose their homes", said Venezuela's ombudsman German Mundarain, adding that "we're going to make sure that every family removed from the dangerous areas will have a new home before next April".