<p><br /> Violent land disputes in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires have left at least four people dead as the government tried to remove squatters.<br /> </p><p><br /> 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.<br /> </p><p><br /> 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.<br /> </p><p><br /> 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.<br /> </p><p><br /> The dispute pits the city government against the national government over which should address the untenable situation on the large, unused tract of land.<br /> </p><p><br /> 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.<br /> </p>
