Altamira is a neighborhood located in the Chacao

Chacao Municipality, Miranda

Chacao Municipality, is one of the five political and administrative subdivisions of the city of Caracas, Venezuela. The other four are Baruta, El Hatillo, Libertador and Sucre. This legal entity is known as the Caracas Metropolitan District...

 municipality of Caracas, Venezuela. It has its own Metro Station

Caracas Metro

The Caracas Metro is a mass rapid transit system serving Caracas, Venezuela. It is constructed and operated by Compañía Anónima Metro de Caracas, a government-owned company that was founded in 1977 by José González-Lander who headed the project for more than thirty years since the early planning...

, many hotels and restaurants, and is an important business and residential center of the city. The Francisco de Miranda

Francisco de Miranda

Sebastián Francisco de Miranda Ravelo y Rodríguez de Espinoza , commonly known as Francisco de Miranda , was a Venezuelan revolutionary...

 avenue (a major avenue in Caracas) and the Distibuidor Altamira (a congested highway exit

Interchange (road)

In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...

) are both located in Altamira.

History

Altamira was created on June 30, 1577 by Juan Andres Varela. This neighborhood is currently home to Plaza Francia (though it is commonly called Plaza Altamira), a well-known landmark which includes an obelisk

Obelisk

An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...

 and a fountain. This square and most of Altamira was built by Luis Roche

Luis Roche

Luis Roche was an important Venezuelan urbanist and amateur film director, responsible in great measure for the development of Caracas' east side during the 1940s...

, who owned most of the area in 1943. In 1944, Luis Roche ordered -with permission of the government- the construction of many avenues and the square

Town square

A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...

. Roche wanted the square's obelisk to be "higher than the Cathedral of Caracas

Caracas Cathedral

The Caracas Cathedral is the seat of the archdiocese of Caracas, located in one corner of the Plaza Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela. The colonial chapel of the Trinity is notable because it is where the parents and wife of Simón Bolívar are buried.-History:...

". The square was completed on August 11, 1945 and was originally called Plaza Altamira. On January 17, 1967 the Venezuelan and French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 governments agreed to rename Plaza Altamira to Plaza Francia (France Square in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

). The French government built a Plaza Venezuela in their country in 1975.

In 1948, Luis Roche began exploring the possibility of building a tunnel between Altamira and the Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....

. He contacted the people who were in charge of the construction of the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

 Tunnels, in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. This project was scrapped due to its high cost as it required three tunnels, two of them used exclusively for ventilation. If built, the tunnel would have been about eight kilometers long. Luis Roche was later assigned Venezuelan Ambassador

Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 to Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

.

Today, Altamira has its own Metro Station

Caracas Metro

The Caracas Metro is a mass rapid transit system serving Caracas, Venezuela. It is constructed and operated by Compañía Anónima Metro de Caracas, a government-owned company that was founded in 1977 by José González-Lander who headed the project for more than thirty years since the early planning...

, many hotels and restaurants, and is an important business center in Caracas. Avenida Francisco de Miranda (a major avenue in Caracas) and the Distribuidor Altamira (a congested highway exit) are both located in Altamira.

Altamira was the scene of a massacre on December 6, 2002. João de Gouveia murdered three citizens and injured 19 participating in a demonstration in Plaza Altamira against Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez

Hugo Chávez

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...

. The massacre occurred during the 2002-2003 general strike.

On August 16, 2004 Plaza Francia was the scene of another incident. A group of opposition activists, protesting what they considered to be fraudulent electoral results of the Presidential Recall Referendum, were met with a hail of bullets from a group of Pro-Government supporters. One person was killed and nine wounded. The gunmen were clearly identified by photographs taken by AP and Reuters photographers. Authorities detained and sentenced Jhon Carlos Jiménez Esalas (32), Henry José Parra Linero (29) and Pedro Celestino Ramos Ponche (56)

External links

Altamira y el Obelisco

• http://archivo.eluniversal.com/2004/09/05/pol_art_05154A.shtml