Carolina Montserrat Tohá Morales (born 12 May 1965) is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an 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 Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

from 2012 to 2016.

Biography

Carolina Tohá is the daughter of the socialist politician

José Tohá José Tohá González (February 6, 1927 – March 15, 1974) was a Chilean journalist, lawyer, and politician of the Socialist Party (PS). Biography Tohá was born in Chillán, the son of Spanish immigrant José Tohá Soldavilla and of Brunilda Go ...

, who served as Minister of the Interior and Minister of Defence in the government of

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

, and was tortured and killed by the country's

military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

in 1974. Tohá studied law at the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

between 1980 and 1983, and entered politics in 1984, when she participated in the refounding of the

University of Chile Student Federation The University of Chile Student Federation (''Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile'' bbr. FECh is an organization that represents all the students enrolled in undergraduate and post-graduate courses at the University of Chile. T ...

(FECh). She was one of the founders of the PPD in 1987. From 1990, Tohá studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

at the

University of Milan The University of Milan ( it, Università degli Studi di Milano; la, Universitas Studiorum Mediolanensis), known colloquially as UniMi or Statale, is a public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Europe ...

, where she obtained a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in 1994.

Presentación de Carolina Tohá (4185864764)

In 2000–2001, during the presidency of

Ricardo Lagos Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar (; born 2 March 1938) is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. During the 1980s he was a well-known opponent of the Chilean military di ...

, Tohá served as Undersecretary General of Government. She was elected to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

for

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, and was re-elected in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. 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 Felipe Harboe Bascuñán (born 20 July 1972 in Eindhoven, Netherlands) is a Dutch-born Chilean politician from the Party for Democracy and current Senator in Congress. He is a former Deputy Interior Minister of Chile and acting Minister of the ...

, 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 Eduardo Alfredo Juan Bernardo Frei Ruiz–Tagle (; born 24 June 1942) is a Chilean politician and civil engineer who served as president of Chile from 1994 to 2000. He was also a Senator, fulfilling the role of President of the Senate from 2006 ...

's presidential run-off campaign. In 2010, Tohá was elected president of the PPD. On 28 October 2012, she was elected mayor of

by an

absolute majority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...

, ending the right's 12-year rule over the municipality. In 2016, she lost the election to

Felipe Alessandri Felipe Alessandri Vergara (born 4 February 1975) is a Chilean politician who served as mayor of Santiago Centro. He is militant of centre-right party National Renewal (RN). Political career In 2016, he won the municipal elections to Caroli ...

. After her term as mayor ended, she taught

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

at the University of Chile. On 6 September 2022, Tohá replaced

Izkia Siches Izkia Jasvin Siches Pastén (born 4 March 1986) is a Chilean doctor and politician, who served in 2022 as Ministry of the Interior and Public Security (Chile), Minister of Interior and Public Security for Gabriel Boric, President Gabriel Boric. S ...

as Minister of the Interior and Public Security in the cabinet of

Gabriel Boric Gabriel Boric Font (; born 11 February 1986) is a Chilean left-wing politician who is the 37th and current president of Chile, serving since 11 March 2022. Boric studied in the Faculty of Law at the University of Chile, and was the president of ...

, after a cabinet reshuffle following the rejection of the proposed new constitution in the

2022 Chilean national plebiscite The 2022 Chilean national plebiscite was held on 4 September 2022, in order to determine whether the public agreed with the text of a new Political Constitution of the Republic drawn up by the Constitutional Convention. It was commonly referre ...

Personal life

Tohá is married (though currently estranged) to

Fulvio Rossi Fulvio Fabrizio Rossi Ciocca (born 30 September 1970) is a Chilean politician and physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who p ...

, a physician and deputy for the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. She has two children from an earlier partner.

Controversies

Irregular financing from SQM

In May 2016, the Chilean Prosecutor's Office began to investigate irregular financing from

Sociedad Química y Minera Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) is a Chilean chemical company and a supplier of plant nutrients, iodine, lithium and industrial chemicals. It is the world’s biggest lithium producer. SQM's natural resources and its main production fa ...

(SQM) – a chemical company whose largest shareholder is

Julio Ponce Lerou Julio Ponce Lerou is a Chilean billionaire who is the principal shareholder of Soquimich. He is 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 occurred between 2011 and 2012, when Tohá was president of the PPD, and made possible the transfer of 57 million Chilean pesos to the party. She was 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toha, Carolina 1965 births Living people Chilean people of Spanish descent Chilean Ministers of the Interior Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile Mayors of Santiago Chilean Ministers Secretary General of Government Party for Democracy (Chile) politicians University of Chile faculty University of Chile alumni University of Milan alumni Chilean political scientists Women mayors of places in Chile Women government ministers of Chile Women members of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile Women political scientists