Carolina Tohá

Carolina Tohá
Minister of the Interior and Public Security
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 September 2022
President	Gabriel Boric
Preceded by	Izkia Siches
Mayor of Santiago
In office 6 December 2012 – 6 December 2016
Preceded by	Pablo Zalaquett
Succeeded by	Felipe Alessandri
President of the Party for Democracy
In office 15 May 2010 – 11 June 2012
Preceded by	Adriana Muñoz D'Albora
Succeeded by	Jaime Quintana
Ministry Secretary General of Government
In office 12 March 2009 – 14 December 2009
President	Michelle Bachelet
Preceded by	Francisco Vidal Salinas
Succeeded by	Pilar Armanet
Personal details
Born	Carolina Monserrat Tohá Morales (1965-05-12) 12 May 1965 Santiago, Chile
Political party	Party for Democracy (PPD)
Spouse(s)	Nolberto Salinas (divorced) Fulvio Rossi (2005–2010) Jaime Madariaga (2011–present)
Alma mater	University of Chile University of Milan
Website	Carolina Tohá official web site

Carolina Monserrat Tohá Morales (born 12 May 1965) is a Chilean political scientist and politician from the Party for Democracy (Partido por la Democracia, PPD), currently serving as Minister of the Interior and Public Security. She was previously mayor of Santiago from 2012 to 2016.

Biography

Carolina Tohá is the daughter of the socialist politician José Tohá, who served as Minister of the Interior and Minister of Defence in the government of Salvador Allende, and was tortured and killed by the country's military dictatorship in 1974. Tohá studied law at the University of Chile between 1980 and 1983, and entered politics in 1984, when she participated in the refounding of the University of Chile Student Federation (FECh). She was one of the founders of the PPD in 1987. From 1990, Tohá studied political science at the University of Milan, where she obtained a Ph.D. in 1994.

Tohá being presented as chief of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle's presidential run-off campaign, 2009.

In 2000–2001, during the presidency of Ricardo Lagos, Tohá served as Undersecretary General of Government. She was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for Santiago in 2001, and was re-elected in 2005. On 12 March 2009, Tohá replaced Francisco Vidal in the Ministry General Secretariat of Government, becoming the first woman to hold that post in the country's history. Her congress seat became vacant and was later taken by Felipe Harboe, as both positions are incompatible with each other in times of peace. On 14 December 2009, she left her government post to lead Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle's presidential run-off campaign. In 2010, Tohá was elected president of the PPD. On 28 October 2012, she was elected mayor of Santiago by an absolute majority, ending the right's 12-year rule over the municipality. In 2016, she lost the election to Felipe Alessandri. After her term as mayor ended, she taught urban planning at the University of Chile.

On 6 September 2022, Tohá replaced Izkia Siches as Minister of the Interior and Public Security in the cabinet of Gabriel Boric, after a cabinet reshuffle following the rejection of the proposed new constitution in the 2022 Chilean national plebiscite.

Personal life

Tohá celebrating after being elected mayor of Santiago, 2012.

Tohá is married (though currently estranged) to Fulvio Rossi, a physician and deputy for the Socialist Party. She has two children from an earlier partner.

Controversies

Irregular financing from SQM

Main article: SQM case

In May 2016, the Chilean Prosecutor's Office began to investigate irregular financing from Sociedad Química y Minera (SQM) – a chemical company whose largest shareholder is Julio Ponce Lerou, a former son-in-law of Augusto Pinochet – to the PPD through false vouchers issued by the foundation Chile Ambiente, which was controlled by the PPD member Patricio Rodrigo. The funding ocurred between 2011 and 2012, when Tohá was president of the PPD, and made possible the transfer of 57 million Chilean pesos to the party.

On 15 May, she declared in a press release: "I would like to clarify that, as president of the PPD, the financing arrangements that I supported were attached to the law […]. I did not ask Patricio Rodrigo, neither directly nor indirectly, any matter related to the party's financing." Nevertheless, on 22 May, her declarations were questioned, because it was reported that in 2011 she had signed a certificate to the Electoral Service to register Chile Ambiente as a party's political formation institute, enabling the body to receive donations to the PPD.

External links

Media related to Carolina Tohá at Wikimedia Commons

• Biography from the Chilean Congress Library (in Spanish)