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Wed 12 April
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Wednesday 12 April 2023 08.30 - 10.30
G-1 CRI01 Crime and Police Cooperation in the Ibero-American Atlantic. 1870-1940
B32
Network: Criminal Justice Chair: Emmanuel Berger
Organizer: Emmanuel Berger Discussant: David Churchill
Fábio Faria : Refugees from the Spanish Civil War and World War II in Portuguese Prisons (1936-1945)
The 20th century was the century of refugees. Due to the unfolding of major international conflicts, such as World War I (1914-1918), the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and World War II (1939-1945), and the intense political, social and religious persecution in the context of the rise of European authoritarian regimes, ... (Show more)
The 20th century was the century of refugees. Due to the unfolding of major international conflicts, such as World War I (1914-1918), the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and World War II (1939-1945), and the intense political, social and religious persecution in the context of the rise of European authoritarian regimes, millions of people felt the need to flee their countries of origin, considering that their lives were at risk. The States, despite a greater concern to create conditions to minimize the difficulties of these fugitives, especially under the aegis of the League of Nations, favored the maintenance of internal order and security, for which reason many restrictions were imposed on their presence. Portugal, due to its geographical location, offering an open door to the American continent, was a space particularly requested by these fugitives, however this was a period of intense challenges for the still newly instituted and in phase of consolidation, Estado Novo of António de Oliveira Salazar, which did not facilitate their reception, often perceived as a threat to precarious internal order and stability, especially those suspected of expressing contrary political sympathies.
This communication aims to address the detention and concentration of refugees in portuguese prisons at a particularly unstable time in Europe, such as the period between 1936 and 1945, with the occurrence of various events that increased population movements and international circulations. It seeks to understand the reasons that led to the departure of this foreign population from their countries of origin and the reasons that led the Portuguese government, of an authoritarian nature, to order their detention, as well as how the surveillance and repression were developed by the Portuguese authorities, in particular by the political police of the Salazar’s regime, the PVDE (Polícia de Vigilância e Defesa do Estado, State Surveillance and Defense Police in English). An approximate quantification of the number of refugees concentrated in prisons in Portugal is carried out and their lives and experiences are explored in a country that was foreign to them and where they did not intend to remain permanently and only use it as a platform to reach other destinations. In short, it analyzes how the Salazar’s government looked at the presence of the refugees from the Spanish Civil War and World War II in Portugal, where many were considered undesirable and suffered intense police repression without having committed any crime. (Show less)

Diego Galeano : Money Counterfeiting and Policing Networks in the Ibero-American Atlantic World, 1880-1940
This paper aims to analyze the illegal markets and criminal networks of counterfeiting money in the Atlantic world. The formation of this market responded to a demand for banknotes in the commercial activities carried out by migrants, which grew exponentially between the last decades of the 19th century and the ... (Show more)
This paper aims to analyze the illegal markets and criminal networks of counterfeiting money in the Atlantic world. The formation of this market responded to a demand for banknotes in the commercial activities carried out by migrants, which grew exponentially between the last decades of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, when financial crises gave way to extreme illiquidity and retraction of bank credit. In order to analyze the role of counterfeit currency within Ibero American migrant economies, this paper will examine the trajectory of three counterfeiters of paper money, and their strategies of construction of criminal networks in the Atlantic world during the era of the massive migrations. Their biographies show numerous features in common with other counterfeiters of the time: European migrants (a Portuguese in Brazil, a family of Italians living in Argentina and a French family with residents in both sides of the River Plate), they all specialized in photography and engraving. The three of them circulated in various cities of South America, Italy and the Iberian Peninsula between the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, and made counterfeit Argentine and Uruguayan pesos, Brazilian reals, Italian lire, Spanish pesetas and US dollars. To analyze these criminal trajectories from a perspective of Atlantic connections, focused on the interactions between local and global dynamics, this research relies on documentation from police, judicial and diplomatic archives of Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Spain and Portugal. In addition, it taps into the records of the Secret Service in the National Archives of the United States and those of the International Committee for the Suppression of Counterfeiting Currency in the League of Nations Archives. An analysis of counterfeiting money enables a discussion of the tangled web of transborder investigations, which involved at least three key players: detectives and secret police agents, press reporters, and finally, the counterfeiters themselves and their accomplices. This triangle of actors was surrounded by negotiations and disputes: any step taken by one of these actors had immediate consequences for the others. This was a world in constant movement. Counterfeiters and circulators moved between cities. Police formed networks that enabled the exchange of criminal records, a constant stream of telegrams, and investigatory trips by detectives. (Show less)

Gonçalo Rocha Gonçalves : Extradition Practices and Transnational Crime in the Ibero-American World in the 1870s
In the first days of September 1871, the police in Lisbon arrested the Brazilian António José Peixoto, who had just arrived in the city from Rio de Janeiro, apparently on his way to London. The arrest was made at the request of the Brazilian police authorities who asked for his ... (Show more)
In the first days of September 1871, the police in Lisbon arrested the Brazilian António José Peixoto, who had just arrived in the city from Rio de Janeiro, apparently on his way to London. The arrest was made at the request of the Brazilian police authorities who asked for his extradition to Brazil. Peixoto was accused of embezzling a significant amount of money from some members of Rio's elite. A few days later, a Portuguese bank also filed a complaint against Peixoto, who became detained at the request of Brazil and the Portuguese judicial authorities. In Lisbon, Peixoto was held in preventive detention until March 1876 when he was tried and acquitted. The extradition case was more complex. The 1855 counterfeit currency agreement, the only one between Portugal and Brazil that allowed extradition, did not include fraud crimes, but the case drew attention of both states to the growing number of criminals fleeing between Europe and South America and to the development of new forms of transnational crime. At this point Portugal and Brazil had been discussing a new extradition agreement between each other for some years, and with other countries in southern Europe and South America. In 1872, with Peixoto still in a Portuguese prison, Brazil and Portugal finally signed an extradition agreement at the same time that Brazil signed similar agreements with France, Italy, Argentina and Paraguay and Portugal signed with Spain, Italy and negotiated with Argentina. In 1876 Peixoto was extradited to Brazil, not according to the 1872 agreement, which did not provide for retroactivity, but to help fight crimes that affected, according to the Portuguese government, “all humanity”. This paper aims to analyze the development of extradition agreements as an instrument of cooperation between states, exploring the relationship between the increasing ease of movement in the Atlantic and the awareness of states for the risks that these facilities posed in criminal terms. Based on diplomatic and police sources, this paper will analyze the negotiations that led to the signing of diplomatic agreements in 1872, but will pay special attention to specific cases of extradition, including that of António José Peixoto, and their role in the development of relations of cooperation between states in the fight against transnational crime. (Show less)

Maria João Vaz : Petty Crime and Transnational Crime Networks. Lisbon, 1870-1910
As in most European countries, between the last decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Portugal was a country of emigration, with a high outflow of population leaving, especially to Brazil. The foreign community living in Lisbon, the country's capital, was not very significant, about ... (Show more)
As in most European countries, between the last decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Portugal was a country of emigration, with a high outflow of population leaving, especially to Brazil. The foreign community living in Lisbon, the country's capital, was not very significant, about 3% of the total number of inhabitants of the city. However, when we analyse the data on arrests and convictions for the practice of crime in Lisbon, between 1870 and 1910, around 10% concerned foreign citizens. Although there are several origins, the vast majority were Spanish, in particular men and women coming from Galicia, in Northern Spain. This fact gives rise to some descriptions of Lisbon as a receptacle for criminals fleeing from Spain who would seek to continue their illegal activities here under the cover of the anonymity they would enjoy here. In a newspaper of the time, it is written: "Lisbon is much visited by Spanish thieves, who by the way think this is an Eldorado. Generally, after being well known to the police in the cities of their country, they come to Lisbon, where any Spaniard can go unnoticed without arousing suspicion, since the Spanish colony is quite numerous among us". (Galeria dos Criminosos Célebres Portugueses, vol. IV, 1900, p. 16). The press also refers to the existence of transnational crime networks, particularly active in Spanish cities and in Lisbon, dedicated, among others, to pickpocketing. This paper aims to analyse the practices and representations of crime in Lisbon, in the last decades of the Constitutional Monarchy (1870-1910). The aim is to investigate the participation in crime of the foreign population that lived and worked in the city of Lisbon, as well as the existence of alleged transnational networks dedicated to the practice of petty crimes, in particular those that linked Portugal and Spain. Finally, we will try to analyse how this situation motivated a greater proximity and cooperation between several authorities in Portugal and Spain, in particular the judicial authorities and the police authorities. (Show less)



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