Park riots leave four dead

Violent land disputes in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires have left at least four people dead as the government tried to remove squatters.

The land had originally been set aside as a park in the poor southern part of the city which is largely populated by sprawling, quickly-growing slums.

This week, squatters carved the land up into plots and began to settle in, but the city government sent police early on Wednesday to remove them.

Police backed off, but the violence didn't end. Locals who live around the abandoned park took matters into their own hands, lobbing rocks over a fence that separates apartment blocks from the area.

The dispute pits the city government against the national government over which should address the untenable situation on the large, unused tract of land.

Buenos Aires conservative mayor Maurico Macri called on President Cristina Fernandez's center-left administration to send police in to control the situation but the national government wanted nothing to do with the situation. They accuse Macri of xenophobia - most of the squatters are immigrants from Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay - and say his demands are unreasonable.