Federico Reyes Heroles
Let’s return to the thesis of the fabric. 1) Goodbye to self-deception, neo-authoritarianism, or tyranny; we are already there. 2) Authoritarianism is always alive. The democratic spirit is always under construction. 3) Seven years of attacks from the presidential megaphone, of daily injections of poison and hatred, have damaged Mexico’s democratic culture. It can be recovered. 4) The opposition, united, can return to the path of democracy. Opponents, plus undefined, with higher participation, could form a new majority in 2027. The numbers are there. It is not about destroying Morena, not at all. 5) To achieve this, it is necessary to weave a high-level political agreement that overcomes phobias and puts pressure on the party domes. There are several examples of something similar, such as Chile, which is one of the most notable.
The spirited efforts of the members of the “Concertación de partidos por el NO” (Coalition of Parties for NO), particularly the Christian Democrats, Socialists, and the old communist left, are inspiring. A living example is Ricardo Lagos, a former collaborator of Allende who formed the PPD (Party for Democracy) with the sole aim of achieving victory for the NO vote. First, freedoms and democracy, differences later. Pinochet “would not take the plane.” They would go—despite the dictatorship’s tricks—united—the Concertación governed for four terms. Personal examples, such as that of Lagos, are notable.
José Tohá was a highly respected socialist journalist and politician. He accompanied Allende in four campaigns. When the Popular Unity triumphed, Allende appointed him Minister of the Interior, a position he held from November 1970 to January 1972. The reason was a legal appeal—the “constitutional accusation”—filed by the Christian Democratic Party (DC). Tohá was accused of tolerance toward armed groups. He became Minister of Defense. On September 11, 1973—the day of the coup—Tohá showed up at La Moneda, where soldiers stopped him and asked what he was doing there, given that the bombing was about to begin. “I have come to be with the president. That is my responsibility.” He was arrested and taken to Dawson Island, a remote and freezing concentration camp created by the dictatorship five days after the coup. Tohá was tortured almost to death, which occurred in Santiago on March 15, 1974. He was 6’3″ tall. His body weighed 107 pounds.
His wife, known as Moy (de) Tohá, met with Pinochet on February 16, 1974; they knew each other well. Tohá and Pinochet marched together against the “Tanquetazo,” the attempted coup in June 1973, weeks before the coup. Moy asked him to return her husband. Pinochet shouted at her, telling her she should be grateful that he had received her. The medical report on José Tohá was unequivocal: “death by strangulation with the help of third parties.” The official version: suicide.
Moy Tohá took refuge in Mexico for several years, which is how I met her, and the Tohá case became a regular topic of conversation in my parents’ home, which she frequented. I remember her as a woman without bitterness, with a very firm but affable character. Moy became a central figure in the Concertación. She began to weave, from Mexico and wherever else was necessary. When I arrived in Chile at the end of September 1988 to observe the plebiscite, I looked for her. I went to the NO offices, where she introduced me to Ricardo Lagos, who was making photocopies at the time. The leader of the Concertación was Patricio Aylwin, the well-known leader of the Christian Democratic Party, originally a member of the Falange, who had participated in the dismissal of José Tohá as Minister of the Interior. But Aylwin changed course, distanced himself from the radicals in his party, and became an important promoter, first of the “group of 24,” of which he said: “Within this group, we learned to know and respect each other in our diversity…” They would later form the Concertación and oust the dictator. Aylwin is another central figure in Chilean society. Moy put her democratic convictions above all else. And she wove her web in silence.
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