Brazilian police raid leftist opposition group: activists

A major leftist activist group said Friday that police burst into its training center in Sao Paulo, firing gunshots and briefly detaining members.
“This morning police invaded the premises of the school without a warrant,” said the Movement of Landless Rural Workers, known by its Portuguese acronym MST.
It said similar raids were carried out at its offices in the southern state of Parana, where eight people were detained, and in the central state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
In Sao Paulo, “police fired three shots and detained activists who were released later,” MST said in a statement.
MST said police were “escalating repression” against the group to weaken its push for agrarian reform in a country with a huge divide between rich and poor.
The Sao Paulo security department said it would comment later.
Human rights group Amnesty International issued a statement criticizing the “intimidation and repression of MST in Sao Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul and Parana.”
“The images and reports show excessive and unnecessary use of force, including gunshots,” it added.