El Mundo takes readers inside Caraque, a shanty settlement in Madrid's Batán area where survival has never come easy. Those who lived there describe a rough, lawless corner of the city. One former resident recalls that hardened figures from the settlement went to burgle homes in Aluche, just over the way, because its residents were seen as posher and softer targets. The account offers a blunt portrait of daily life in one of the capital's most marginal enclaves.