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Protesters invade Vale pig iron plant in northeast Brazil

Protesters from the Landless Rural Workers Movement invaded a pig iron plant in northeastern Brazil belonging to Brazilian mining giant Vale, the company said on Saturday.

Vale, the second-largest mining company in the world, said on its Web site that the protesters had vandalized buildings and machinery at the Monte Libano charcoal ranch in an "extremely violent" morning raid on the plant in the northeastern city of Acailandia.

WOMEN'S DAY

The movement, known by its Portuguese-language initials MST, claimed the invasion was linked to Saturday's commemoration of International Women's Day, Vale said.

The MST did not answer repeated calls to its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro or in Brasilia, the capital, and the link between the invasion and Women's Day was not immediately clear. In the past, the group has used the date to protest the status of women in Brazilian society.

The Globo TV network, Brazil's largest, said the protesters demanded the closing of 71 charcoal furnaces near an MST settlement.

Vale said the protesters threatened plant workers and blocked the major Belem-Brasilia highway near the plant with tires and tree trunks. Police were called to assess the damage and protect Vale facilities.

In November, some 300 MST protesters blockaded a key iron-ore export railway belonging to Vale in the Carajas mining complex in the northern state of Para.

DEMANDS

The protesters said that they wanted to exert pressure on Vale to provide funding for social programs and to arrange away for them to have a say in corporate decision-making.

It was the third time that the protesters had shut down the railway, which supplies Atlantic ports for shipment overseas.

Vale, formerly known as Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA, or CVRD, is the world's No. 1 exporter of iron ore. It became the world's second-largest mining company in 2006, smaller only than Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton Ltd.
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