José Tohá

José Tohá González (Chillán, February 6, 1927-Santiago, March 15, 1974) was a Chilean journalist and politician, recognized activist of the Socialist Party (PS). He served as Minister of the Interior and National Defense during the presidency of Salvador Allende (1970-1973). He died at the beginning of the military dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet, after having been detained and tortured by soldiers of said regime.

Biography

He was born in the city of Chillán, son of the Catalan immigrant José Tohá Soldavilla and Brunilda González Monteagudo. He studied his humanities at the Jesuit Fathers and the Chillán Men's High School, where he was president of the student center and then the Federation of secondary students of Ñuble. Subsequently, he emigrated to Santiago, where he studied law at the Faculty of that branch of the University of Chile and there he again carried out active work as a student leader, presiding over the Federation of Students of the University of Chile (FECh) between the years 1950-51. Finally he dedicated himself to journalism. On August 29, 2023, the Supreme Court of Chile posthumously granted him the title of lawyer.

In 1958 he joined the board of the newspaper Las Noticias de Última Hora. In 1960 he became the director of the newspaper, a position he held without interruption for ten years, until the advent of Unidad Popular.

Socialist Militancy

He was a member of the Socialist Party (PS) since 1942, the year in which he joined the Socialist Youth Federation in the core of his high school. In that capacity and while studying Law, he was elected President of the Student Federation of the University of Chile.

As a member of his party's Central Committee, he worked in Salvador Allende's four presidential campaigns: 1952, 1958, 1964 and 1970.

Minister of Popular Unity

At the beginning of Salvador Allende's government, he was appointed Minister of the Interior and served as Vice President of the Republic. He was removed from this position following a constitutional accusation filed against him by the Christian Democracy (DC), in which he was accused of tolerance towards the existence of armed groups.

When the constitutional accusation was declared admissible, Allende appointed him as Minister of Defense, which outraged his opponents, seeing it as an act of provocation. As Minister of Defense he took to the streets of downtown Santiago to stop an attempted coup that was called the "Tanquetazo". At his side, on that occasion, he was assisted by General Augusto Pinochet, who a few months later would lead the coup d'état through which he came to power.

Coup d'état of 1973

The morning of the coup d'état on September 11, 1973, he went to the La Moneda Palace. When asked why he was in that place that was going to be bombed, he responded: «I come to be next to the President. That is my responsibility. After Allende's death he was arrested, along with other Allende collaborators, and sent to the Military School, and later to the Dawson Island Concentration Camp. According to testimonies from other imprisoned people, He was tortured in these places.

Tohá's condition after his arrival at the Dawson Island Concentration Camp deteriorated due to malnutrition (he weighed 49 kilos, with his height being 1.92 m). He was first transferred to the hospital in Punta Arenas, to later be transferred to the Military Hospital of Santiago.

He arrived at the military hospital on February 1, 1974. Despite his precarious state of health, the military harassed him with endless interrogations.

"They stand at the feet of my bed and make scorn from my helplessness."

José Tohá to his wife Moy

His physical deterioration accelerated with his weight loss to the point that he lost his vision, and could no longer walk or take care of himself.

Death and judicial process

José Tohá González died on March 15, 1974 in the Military Hospital of Santiago. The original version of the dictatorship was that Tohá had committed suicide, hanging himself from his neck with his belt, in a closet. However, This version was rejected from the beginning by his family, arguing among other things that Tohá could not execute the necessary movements, so his death must have been caused by members of the military dictatorship. That same year, the Investigative Police expert Alfonso Chelén, who was the first to observe the body, indicated in his report that the cause of Tohá's death was "death by strangulation with the participation of third parties." This report cost him his departure from the Civil Police. This first autopsy of his body was carried out in abnormal conditions, since it was carried out in the same hospital and not in the Legal Medical Service, where it was appropriate and there were conditions for it.

After his death, his wife, Victoria Eugenia Morales Etchevers (known as Moy de Tohá) and their children Carolina Tohá and José Tohá sought asylum in Mexico.

More than thirty years later, the Court of Appeals of Santiago ordered, on November 15, 2010, to exhume his body and continue investigations into the cause of his death. This examination was carried out in the General Cemetery of Santiago. Additionally, on November 24, 2011, a scene reconstruction was carried out at the Military Hospital.

On October 12, 2012, the result of a third expert report ordered to the University of Concepción by Visiting Minister Jorge Zepeda was delivered, which maintained that the former Secretary of State did not commit suicide, but was murdered by strangulation.. His body was buried for the third time on November 19, 2012. On December 4, 2015, the visiting minister Jorge Zepeda condemned the retired Air Force colonels, Ramón Cáceres Jorquera and Sergio Contreras Mejías, to three years of sentence remitted, as responsible for torturing Tohá. This sentence was confirmed on January 18, 2017.

Family political inheritance

• His brother Jaime Tohá was Minister of Agriculture of Allende, Minister of Energy and Economics during the government of Patricio Aylwin. He was then Minister of Public Works during the government of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, mayor of the Biobío Region during the government of Ricardo Lagos and ambassador in Cuba and mayor of the Biobío Region during the first government of President Michelle Bachelet.
• His brother Isidoro Tohá was a deputy for Chillán on two occasions.
• His wife Moy de Tohá has been named a cultural aggregate in Mexico and ambassador to Honduras and El Salvador under the governments of Patricio Aylwin, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle and Ricardo Lagos.
• Her eldest daughter, Carolina Tohá, has been elected twice as PPD deputy by Santiago Centro and served as Assistant Secretary General of Government during the government of Ricardo Lagos, Minister Secretary General of Government during the first government of Michelle Bachelet and, like her father, Minister of the Interior and Public Security during the government of Gabriel Boric. She was mayor of the Santiago commune between 2012 and 2016.
• His younger son, José Tohá, completed his undergraduate and postgraduate university studies in the United States and serves as an Architect in Washington D. C..

Electoral history

Parliamentary elections of 1969

• 1969 Parliamentary Elections Candidate to Senator Seventh Provincial Group, Concepción, Ñuble and Arauco

Period 1969-1977 (Source: Diario El Mercurio, March 4, 1969)