CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The first of thousands of squatters who transformed a half-built skyscraper into a vertical slum were moved out by armed police and soldiers Tuesday, marking the beginning of the end for the Tower of David's haphazard community. Police in riot gear and soldiers with Kalashnikov assault rifles stood on side streets as dozens of residents boarded buses for their new government-provided apartments in Cua, a town about 23 miles (37 kilometers) south of Caracas. Ernesto Villegas, the government minister overseeing Caracas' redevelopment, told reporters that the eviction was necessary because the 45-story building in the heart of the capital is unsafe. Meant to be the crown jewel of a glittering downtown, the building was abandoned amid a 1990s banking crisis. On Tuesday, Maria Sevilla, manager of the 28th floor, looked wistfully at the sooty concrete skeleton, with its steep ledges and incomplete stories stippled with satellite dishes.