Agostinho Lourenço da Conceição Pereira (5 September 1886 – 2 August 1964) was a Portuguese

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...

, best known for founding and running the Portuguese political police under the '' Estado Novo''. Lourenço fought in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

for the British. After the war, he acted briefly as governor of

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

. He was made Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for services to the future

Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January ...

, then Prince of Wales, who was visiting Lisbon in 1931. In 1933, in the early days of the Salazar regime, Lourenço founded the PVDE, Portugal's security and immigration police. According to Professor Douglas Wheeler, "an analysis of Lourenco's career suggests strongly that British Intelligence Services' influence had an impact on the structure and activity of PVDE". Lourenço had earned a reputation with British observers, recorded in a confidential print generated at the British embassy, which suggested a "pro-British" bias on his part. He always kept a good relationship with the

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

, which allowed him in 1956 to become the president of

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

, which he remained for five years.

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* * * 1886 births 1964 deaths 20th-century Portuguese military personnel Portuguese police officers {{Portugal-bio-stub