Our last post addressed the likely confirmation of Brazil’s Valdecy Urquiza as INTERPOL’s next Secretary General. Today’s post will focus on the possible implications of Mr. Urquiza holding this position.
If Mr. Urquiza is elected, he will be INTERPOL’s first leader from a developing country. The organization has never had a Secretary General who did not hail from Europe or the United States. Mr. Urquiza’s candidacy points to a future with a potentially more diverse, expansive perspective for INTERPOL. In his statement regarding his recommendation for the position, he reportedly highlighted his “… plans to strengthen Interpol as ‘an absolutely necessary platform for police work in the world’ and avoid the agency being used for political ends.”
However, Brazil’s history of corruption is concerning. Transparency International scores Brazil at 104 out of 180 countries, and 54% of citizens thought corruption has increased in the last year. Naturally, the worry in the INTERPOL realm is that a relatively high level of corruption carries a possibility of invalid arrests and the resulting Red Notices. We have seen such a correlation with other INTERPOL member countries, and that worry may be valid in this situation based on the available evidence.
Human Rights Watch has called for protection of voting and speech rights in Brazil in the last several years. The Reuters Institute has reported that journalists have been arrested for reporting the news. Moreover, recent news coverage of Brazil’s “expanding wave of grave human rights abuses in Brazil- social media bans, political prosecutions, jailing opposition on spurious charges, thinly veiled censorhip laws” led to a congressional hearing in the U.S., at which multiple individuals testified about the growing censorship and politically motivated prosecutions, and Red Notices, against journalists. The testifying witnesses included:
Not all the testimony (all found here in transcript form) was critical of the government. Witness Fabio de Sa e Silva, Professor of Brazilian Studies, University of Oklahoma. Professor Sa e Silva testified that there was not a crisis of democracy in Brazil, and that the Brazilian judiciary was acting in accordance with its interpretation of applicable law. He characterized the country as one with a “vibrant democracy.”
Certainly, Mr. Urquiza will have a broad fund of experiences and observations from which to draw in running the international organization. His experience in positions such as Director of International Cooperation at the Brazilian Federal Police will help him navigate INTERPOL, an organization that has its own struggles with abuse and corruption.
The President of INTERPOL, Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, who has also faced accusations of human rights abuse, publicly supported Mr. Urquiza:
“Mr. Urquiza impressed the Executive Committee with his experience, vision, and commitment to international policing. He brings significant experience of policing, as a senior police officer in Brazil, a former member of INTERPOL staff, and as INTERPOL’s Vice President for the Americas.”
Valdecy Urquiza will almost certainly become INTERPOL’s next Secretary General. It will be interesting to see how he tackles the ongoing issues within the organization, and how his leadership compares with that of outgoing Secretary General Jürgen Stock.
As always, thoughts and comments are welcomed.
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