In a nation of 11 million people--- some highlights from the article--
Some 3,856 partial or total building collapses were reported in the capital city from 2000 to 2013, not including 2010 and 2011 when no records were kept.
The collapses worsened an already severe housing shortage. The capital city alone had a deficit of 206,000 homes in 2016, official figures show.
Officials estimate 28,000 people live in buildings that could collapse at any moment. Some residents refuse to leave structures that authorities have declared unsafe.
UNESCO calls the historic district of the original capital one of Latin America’s “most notable” historic city centers and named it a World Heritage site in 1982.
In the capital city, some of the same architectural gems that draw tens of thousands of American tourists crash to the ground every year. Causes range from weather and neglect to faulty renovations and theft of structural beams.
Before the stairway failure, residents say, people had been prying valuable marble tiles from the walls, weakening the staircase.
Álvarez, the baker, said before his second-story apartment came down on July 15, 2015, workers on the ground floor had been using a jackhammer to strip the walls to the brick. He said cracks from below began inching toward his apartment. His mother complained, but city inspectors said the workers weren’t to blame.
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