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Rolando Salvador Urquijo Martinez (born 19 August 1962) is a Deconaran politician and economist who served as the President of Deconara from 2006 until 2017. The leader of the Unión Popular party from its foundation until 2017, Urquijo self-identified as a democratic socialist, and his administration sought to move away from the country's prior neoliberal economic model by reducing the influence of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Urquijo was born into a middle-class family in Boerman, and moved to Romara as a child. He studied economics at the Universidad Protestante Holandesa de Bartun, the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Carnegie Mellon University. After serving as mayor of his adopted hometown, Urquijo was first voted into office in the 2006 election. His government was considered one of the last in the 2000s pink tide of Latin American countries shifting politically leftwards, before a return to the right in the early 2010s. After successfully convincing the government to amend the Constitution to allow presidents to seek a second consecutive term, he won an unexpected victory in the 2010 election, as while the economy had plunged during the 2008 recession and struggled to recover, his two years in government had seen thousands lifted out of poverty and progressive economic reforms.
While Urquijo's government successfully recovered from the 2008 recession, his administration was plagued with corruption scandals and allegations of kidnapping political opponents, with observers questioning whether his government could be considered an elected dictatorship. After leaving office in 2017, he moved with his family to Russia. In 2018, the Supreme Court of Deconara authorised an arrest warrant were Urquijo ever to return to his country. Interpol initially rejected two Deconaran arrest warrant requests, but authorised a third request in 2021 after the discovery of personal orders he made to the Romara Society for extrajudicial killings that were committed between 1996 and 2005 during Urquijo's mayoralty. The victims were mainly alleged drug traffickers, alleged petty criminals, and street children. This was followed by an investigation by the International Criminal Court into extrajudicial killings and kidnapping orders made by Urquijo during his tenures as mayor of Romara and president of Deconara, respectively.
In 2023, Urquijo was arrested by Interpol agents, assisted by the Guardia Civil, and was transferred to The Hague, making him the first Deconaran president to face an international tribunal.