“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Ribeiros, Prado Lima possessed lands west of the city along the road to Uruguaiana. Prado
Lima equally had substantial connections to borderlands elites. He served on the town
council in the 1830s and 1840s. He was also the commander of the local police forces
during the Farrapos Rebellion. Following the war, Prado Lima used that influence to place
prominent allies in the local judiciary. His son-in-law, José Vaz Alves de Castro Amaral,
became a municipal judge in Alegrete in the early 1850s. Prado Lima also had ties to a
number of leaders in nearby Uruguaiana, including Zeferino and Analeto Nolasco and
Manoel Vianna Marques, the municipal judge there. To balance the influence of the
Ribeiros, Prado Lima’s faction further gravitated towards David Canabarro, the region’s
frontier military commander based in Santana do Livramento. Prado Lima and his allies
ultimately supported Canabarro’s Partido Liberal Histórico – what would ultimately become
known as the Liberal Party – throughout the 1860s. 23
In 1853, these two political rivals collided in the Alegrete courts when Freitas Valle
brought charges of political bias and unlawful judicial conduct against Amaral. The dispute
originated when two armed men entered the home of José Ferreira da Silva Bastos in March
of 1852. They did so apparently in order to attack him and his mistress. Bastos managed to
drive the assailants from his home. In the process, the men left several objects identifying
them as members of the National Guard stationed in the town. Bastos immediately
complained to the local police captain, as well as to the National Guard commander, Luiz
José Ferreira. Bastos, however, was unable to identify the soldiers in question. After only a
brief investigation, the case appeared to be a dead-end. 24
23 Carneiro, A Identidade Inacabada, Ivo Caggiani, David Canabarro: De Tenente a General
(Porto Alegre: Martins Liveiro, 1992), 213-19.
24 Manoel de Freitas Valle c. José Vaz Alves de Castro Amaral, Juiz Municipal.
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