eep in the northernmost reaches of the Amazon jungle, a land conflict between rice farmers and a handful of Indian tribes has turned so violent that the country’s Supreme Court warns it could escalate into civil war.

The court is expected to decide in August if the government can keep evicting rice farmers from a 4.2 million acre Indian reservation decreed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2005. The evictions were stopped in April when rice farmers started burning bridges and blockading roads, and justices said they feared a “veritable civil war.”
…
“If we take the concept of prior occupation too far,” said Supreme Court Justice Marco Aurelio Mello, “we will have to hand my marvelous city of Rio de Janeiro over to the Indians.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/04/world/main4320602.shtml

The nuances of Brazil’s affairs continue to amaze me. I don’t understand them very well.