Brazilian riot police evict hundreds of squatters

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Riot police used tear gas Friday to evict hundreds of squatters who moved into a vacant hotel two weeks ago amid a wave of property invasions.

Police stormed the hotel near Sao Paulo's center at dawn and sprayed tear gas inside because some of the 200 to 300 squatters resisted and set a small fire on the roof of the building, said state police Col. Luiz Claudio Alves.

Alves said no squatters were injured, but leaders of the Workers Without a Roof Movement that organized the squatter invasion said at least five of their members were injured.

Firefighters quickly put out the fire, Alves said.

About 4,000 squatters remain camped out in a shantytown they built on a 50-acre lot owned by Volkswagen on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.

And thousands more squatters are still occupying two vacant apartment buildings in Sao Paulo. Hundreds left another shuttered hotel last week after police threatened to use force to evict them.

The property takeovers in Sao Paulo happened as another group representing Brazil's landless rural poor has increased its invasions of rural land owned by ranchers.

In Brazil, about 90 percent its land is owned by just 20 percent of the country's 170 million people. The poorest 40 percent of the population hold just 1 percent.

Volkswagen obtained an order allowing riot police to evict the squatters on the company's land. But the squatters' group, known by its Portuguese acronym of MTST, got a reprieve this week hours after the order was approved.

The judge who issued the reprieve wrote that the squatters could be injured by riot police, and that Volkswagen must provide more proof that it owns the land. The car maker is appealing the decision.