“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

operations lay in ruins across the border. Like Picant, however, Fernandez still possessed
substantial assets in the Brazilian borderlands, particularly around Alegrete. Picant sought to
use his commercial ties to Prado Lima and other Farrapos in the town to recover his lost
funds. 45
Upon receiving the letter, Prado Lima sprung into action. He issued an embargo on
Fernadez’s assets in the town. He then ordered Fernandez to appear before him in a
reconciliation proceeding (a necessary procedural prelude to litigation). When the
reconciliation failed, Prado Lima ordered Fernandez to appear in a formal hearing regarding
the debt. In preparation for the litigation, Picant retained Francisco de Sá Brito, a local
lawyer and former judge that was also Prado Lima’s personal friend and political ally. As we
will see in detail in chapters four and five, local factional politics may have influenced Prado
Lima’s and Sá Brito’s decision to assist Guarch and Picant. Specifically, the two men formed
part of a faction increasingly at odds with Bento Ribeiro and his family in Alegrete.
Obtaining a verdict for Guarch and Picant, one of Ribeiro’s old trading partners prior to his
defection, might bolster their own position and personal prestige while publicly manifesting
their hold on local legal institutions. Whatever the rationale, prior reciprocal allegiances
clearly benefited Guarch and Picant. In front of a friendly judge and represented by one of
his local allies, the outcome of the case was never in doubt. Picant received title to assets
subject to the embargo, ensuring at least a partial recovery from his loses across the border. 46
As Guarch and Picant used factional alliances in Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul to
expand their cross-border commercial trading networks in the 1830s and 1840s, another
Brazilian merchant, Francisco de Lemos Pinto, was pursuing similar strategies to move in the
45 Don Luis Miraglia por Doña Augustina Guarch y Don Julian Subsiela sobre liquidación y
arreglo de cuentas.
46 Ibid.
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