Radomiro Tomic Romero (Calama, 7 May 1914 - Santiago de Chile, 3 January 1992) was a Chilean lawyer and politician of Croatian origin, and candidate for the presidency of the Chilean Republic in the 1970 election. He graduated as a lawyer from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC). He began his political activity in the Social-Christian circles of the PUC, and was one of the co-founders of the Falange Nacional (FN, future Christian Democracy, DC) in 1938. He became president of the party in 1946–1947 and 1952–1953. He was married to Olaya Errázuriz Echenique, and together they had 9 children.
Tomic served as deputy for Arica, Pisagua and Iquique (1941–1949). When senator and poet Pablo Neruda was banned by the Ley de Defensa Permanente de la Democracia (Law for the Permanent Defense of Democracy)—which banned the Communist Party of Chile and removed numerous voters from the rolls)—Tomić won the vacated seat in a by-election. He served as senator for Tarapacá and Antofagasta (1950–1953), and then for Aconcagua and Valparaíso (1961–1965). In 1965 he resigned his senatorial seat to become Chile's ambassador to the United States (4 March 1965 – April 1968).
As leader of the progressive wing of the Christian Democrats, he was the party's presidential candidate in the 1970 election in which Salvador Allende won a plurality and, with Tomic's support, was ratified by parliament as president. Allende died three years later in the Chilean coup of 1973, which put an end to democracy in Chile for over 15 years.
As a parliamentarian and politician Tomic was a defender of Chilean sovereignty over the country's copper deposits and in the nationalization of that industry. In 1997, CODELCO named a mine in his honor.
Of Croatian people descent, he was the fifth of seven children of the marriage between Esteban Tomic Dvornik (mayor of Calama in the 1930s, who inaugurated the present town hall of the commune) and María Romero García. He had seven siblings.
In 1940, while in Stockholm (Sweden), he married Olaya Errázuriz Echeñique, with whom he had nine children: Amaya, Esteban, who was Chilean Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Carlos, Gabriel, Felipe, Blas, Olaya, Juan Cristóbal and Francisco.[1]
He studied at Colegio San Luis in Antofagasta. After school, he entered the Law School Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He graduated as a lawyer in 1941 with the thesis: International law: the inter-American system. Upon graduation he obtained the "Grand Prize" for the most outstanding student.
Professional career
He worked in the field of journalism. Between 1937 and 1941, he was director of the newspaper El Tarapacá de Iquique, where he succeeded Eduardo Frei Montalva. He later directed the publishing house Editorial del Pacífico. He also taught Economic Policy, Political Economy and Social Legislation at the Catholic University of Chile and the Polytechnic Institute. He also held the post of director of the Centros del Progreso for Tarapacá and Antofagasta.
Political career
He started in politics during his university days, when he became president of the Law Students' Centre of the PUC and later, of the Students' Federation of his university.
He was elected deputy in two consecutive periods for Arica, Pisagua and Iquique (1941-1945 and 1945–1949)[2] He was a substitute deputy on the Standing Committee on Public Education and was a member of the Standing Committee on National Defence. In his second term he was a substitute member of the Standing Committee on Constitution, Legislation and Justice and was a member of the Standing Committee on Roads and Public Works. Between 1945 and 1946 he was a member of the Falangist Committee.
Later he was senator for the provinces of Tarapacá and Antofagasta (1950-1953, in a complementary election, replacing Pablo Neruda who was disqualified by the[Law for the Defence of Democracy). He was a substitute senator in the Standing Committee on Finance and Budgets; in the Standing Committee on Public Works and Roads; and in the Standing Committee on Hygiene, Health and Public Assistance.
In 1961 he was elected senator for Aconcagua and Valparaíso (for the period 1961–1965).[3] He was a member of the Standing Committee on Constitution, Legislation, Justice and Regulation; and the Committee on Public Education. He did not finish his parliamentary term after being posted as Chilean ambassador to the United States on 4 March 1965. He was replaced by Benjamín Prado Casas.
As a congressman he participated in various international activities: in 1951 he was a delegate to the Conference of American Foreign Ministers held in Washington; in 1955 he was received as a guest of honour by the Yugoslavian Government; in 1957, he was a member of the delegation that negotiated the Trade Treaty with Argentina and participated in the International Congress of São Paulo. In 1958, he participated in the Brussels International Congress; he was invited by the Department of State in Washington and by the Italian Government. The following year, he travelled to Cuba as an official guest of the government, and in 1960, he visited Venezuela and Colombia also at the official invitation.
Among the motions presented which became law of the Republic are: Law No. 7.855 of 8 September 1944, amending the Organic Code of Courts with regard to the granting of degrees to lawyers; Law No. 7.884 of 27 September 1944; Law No. 7.884 of 27 September 1944, amending the Organic Code of Courts with regard to the granting of degrees to lawyers; Law No. 7.884 of 27 September 1944, amending the Organic Code of Courts with regard to the granting of degrees to lawyers; Law No. 7.855 of 27 September 1944. 884 of 27 September 1944, which reduced fares on State Railways and private railways for sportsmen; Law No. 8.715 of 12 December 1946 on the establishment of the irremovability of fiscal, semi-fiscal and other employees during periods of presidential elections. In addition to the Law that created the extraordinary tax on copper, the Junta Nacional de Auxilio Escolar y Becas, and the Law of the Copper Corporation (Codelco), among others.
In 1965 he resigned his seat as senator to accept the post of ambassador of Chile to United States, serving from 4 March 1965 to 13 April 1968.
Ideology and party activity
Leader of the progressive ideological tendency of the Christian Democracy, he was the presidential candidate of his party in the 1970 Chilean presidential election, which was won by Salvador Allende. Tomic supported Allende's ratification by Parliament.
He opened the political campaign with an emblematic phrase that is remembered for the turning point it marked within the party:
I am not trembling to say it: either the democratic and popular revolution shaping an immense effort of people's participation for Chile to reach another horizon and a new destiny, or the institutional collapse will seriously divide Chileans against themselves
Tomic ran a left-wing campaign that marked a break from the moderation of Eduardo Frei Montalva.[6] British historian Alan Angell remarked that "Tomic's campaign looked almost as radical in tone and pronouncement as that of Allende", which attracted left-wing voters and progressive Catholics at the cost of right-leaning DC supporters, who often defected to Alessandri.[6] Tomic performed exceptionally well amongst women and churchgoing Catholics, but failed to outcompete Allende in traditionally left-wing areas.[6]
Tomic was considered "second only to Frei" in the Christian Democratic leadership, and his nomination was considered guaranteed long before 1970. Serving as Ambassador of Chile to the United States, he was able to make connections with the American establishment and earn prestige amongst international leaders.[7] At the same time, because he served abroad, he was not associated with Frei's unpopular policies. Identifying himself as a progressive Catholic, Tomic openly criticized capitalism and spoke of "structural transformation that would usher in Catholic communitarianism", supporting nationalization of Chilean copper industry and advocating for "a more significant presence of the Chilean state" in other industries.[8] When asked by Sidney Weintraub in July 1968 what his ideal of Catholic communitarianism meant, Tomic replied that "everybody knows what capitalism is, […] everybody knows what communism is; communitarianism is neither."[9]
Tomic desired an alliance with the left-wing parties of Popular Unity, arguing that the goal of the Christian Democrats "was to bring about substantial economic and social transformation and its goals did not differ significantly from those of the Marxist Left".[10] According to Tomic, Chile was in dire need of progressive reforms, and a coalition of left-wing parties with Christian Democrats would unite the Chilean progressives and secure a parliamentary majority needed to secure reform. Despite cold reception of his idea by Frei and the American administration, Tomic fiercely defended it, arguing that allying with the moderate Left in order to construct a communiarian system "could save Chile from an impending catastrophe" and "compared his prognosis about the future of Chile to Churchill’s early warnings against Hitler in the 1930s", describing his plan as a way to prevent both a communist revolution and a reactionary military coup in Chile.[11] While the U.S. Ambassador Edward M. Korry was opposed to Tomic's plan and believed that the anti-clericalCommunist Party of Chile would never agree to an alliance with Christian Democrats, Undersecretary of StateNicholas Katzenbach supported it, writing: "I have heard that Chilean Communists are less radical than the Socialists. Tomic's idea of a coalition of the left may not be all that bad. At any rate, it is worth further investigation."[12]
Despite being wary of Tomic because of his connections to the United States, the general secretary of the Communist Party, Luis Corvalán, called Tomic and Christian Democrats "a good part" of Chilean politics and praised them for their "revolutionary, anti-imperialist, and antioligarchic" outlook.[13] According to George W. Grayson, likewise the most left-wing wing of Christian Democrats, the rebeldes (rebels), were willing to embrace Tomic despite his connections to the Johnson administration. During his 1970 presidential campaign, Tomic stated that "it is impossible to be both a Catholic and a capitalist", called for a "noncapitalist path of development" and sought a union with socialist and communist parties, emphasizing that he envisioned "not a mere electoral alliance but a solid platform on which to base a revolutionary government."[13] Ultimately, Tomic finished third because his left-wing campaign failed to make sufficient inroads with the poor and left-wing voters, and a fraction of Christian Democrat middle-class base defected to Alessandri.[14] Albert L. Michaels argues that despite Tomic's values of communitarianism and liberation theology, Frei's administration made Christian Democrats so unpopular that Tomic "could do little to outbid Allende for support among the direct victims of austerity, inflation, economic slump, and official violence."[14]
As a parliamentarian and politician, he defended Chilean sovereignty over copper deposits and the role of the State in large-scale copper mining (see Chileanisation of copper). In 1992, CODELCO named a Radomiro Tomic deposit in his honour.[15][16]
He died in 1992 of a liver ailment. To this day, his party still remembers his ideas and considers him one of its most important figures in history. Meanwhile, in his native Calama, the newest high school of the Municipal Corporation of Social Development (COMDES), created in 2002, bears his name.
Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens was a socialist politician, who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until his death in 1973. As a democratic socialist committed to democracy, he has been described as the first Marxist to be elected president in a liberal democracy in Latin America.
Eduardo Nicanor Frei Montalva was a Chilean political leader. In his long political career, he was Minister of Public Works, president of his Christian Democratic Party, senator, President of the Senate, and the 27th president of Chile from 1964 to 1970. His eldest son, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, also became president of Chile (1994–2000).
The Christian Democratic Party is a Christian democratic political party in Chile. There have been three Christian Democrat presidents in the past, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Patricio Aylwin, and Eduardo Frei Montalva.
The Socialist Party of Chile is a centre-left political party founded in 1933. Its historic leader was President of Chile Salvador Allende, who was deposed in a coup d'état by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973. The military junta immediately banned socialist, Marxist and other leftist political parties. Members of the Socialist party and other leftists were subject to violent suppression, including torture and murder, under the Pinochet dictatorship, and many went into exile. Twenty-seven years after the 1973 coup, Ricardo Lagos Escobar won the Presidency as the Socialist Party candidate in the 1999–2000 Chilean presidential election. Socialist Michelle Bachelet won the 2005–06 Chilean presidential election. She was the first female president of Chile and was succeeded by Sebastián Piñera in 2010. In the 2013 Chilean general election, she was again elected president, leaving office in 2018.
Presidential elections were held in Chile on 4 September 1970. Salvador Allende of the Popular Unity alliance won a narrow plurality in a race against independent Jorge Alessandri and Christian Democrat Radomiro Tomic, before having his victory confirmed by a congressional vote after the Christian Democrats voted in favour of his candidacy.
Popular Unity was a left-wing political alliance in Chile that stood behind the successful candidacy of Salvador Allende for the 1970 Chilean presidential election.
Jorge Eduardo Alessandri Rodríguez was the 26th President of Chile from 1958 to 1964, and was the candidate of the Chilean right in the crucial presidential election of 1970, which he lost to Salvador Allende. He was the son of Arturo Alessandri, who was president from 1920 to 1925 and again from 1932 to 1938.
Codelco is a Chilean state-owned copper mining company. It was formed in 1976 from foreign-owned copper companies that were nationalised in 1971.
Salvador Allende was the president of Chile from 1970 until his suicide in 1973, and head of the Popular Unity government; he was a Socialist and Marxist elected to the national presidency of a liberal democracy in Latin America. In August 1973 the Chilean Senate declared the Allende administration to be "unlawful," Allende's presidency was ended by a military coup before the end of his term. During Allende's three years, Chile gradually transitioned into a socialist state.
The nationalization of the Chilean copper industry, commonly described as the Chileanization of copper was the process by which the Chilean government acquired control of the major foreign-owned section of the Chilean copper mining industry. It involved the three huge mines known as 'La Gran Mineria' and three smaller operations. The Chilean-owned smaller copper mines were not affected. The process started under the government of President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, and culminated during the government of President Salvador Allende, who completed the nationalization. This "act of sovereignty" was the espoused basis for a later international economic boycott, which further isolated Chile from the world economy, worsening the state of political polarization that led to the 1973 Chilean coup d'état.
Presidential elections were held in Chile on 4 September 1964. As the constitution prevented presidents from serving two consecutive terms, incumbent president Jorge Alessandri was ineligible for re-election. The result was a victory for Eduardo Frei Montalva of the Christian Democratic Party, who received 56% of the vote.
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On 11 March 1990, Chile transitioned to a democracy, ending the military regime led by General Augusto Pinochet. This transition lasted 15 years. Unlike most democratic transitions led by either the elite or the people, this democratic transition process is known as an intermediate transition – a transition involving both the regime and the civil society. Throughout the transition, as the regime increased repressive violence, it simultaneously supported liberalization – progressively strengthening democratic institutions and gradually weakening that of the military.
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1 2 3 Angell, Alan (November 1970). "From Christian Democracy to Marxism?". The World Today. Royal Institute of International Affairs. 26 (11): 488–496. doi:10.2307/40394332.
↑ Hurtado-Torres, Sebastian (December 2016). The Gathering Storm: The United States, Eduardo Frei's Revolution in Liberty and the Polarization of Chilean Politics, 1964-1970. Cornell University Press. p.176. doi:10.7591/j.ctvh1dn7n. ISBN9781501747182.
↑ Hurtado-Torres, Sebastian (December 2016). The Gathering Storm: The United States, Eduardo Frei's Revolution in Liberty and the Polarization of Chilean Politics, 1964-1970. Cornell University Press. p.177. doi:10.7591/j.ctvh1dn7n. ISBN9781501747182.
↑ Hurtado-Torres, Sebastian (December 2016). The Gathering Storm: The United States, Eduardo Frei's Revolution in Liberty and the Polarization of Chilean Politics, 1964-1970. Cornell University Press. p.178. doi:10.7591/j.ctvh1dn7n. ISBN9781501747182.
↑ Hurtado-Torres, Sebastian (December 2016). The Gathering Storm: The United States, Eduardo Frei's Revolution in Liberty and the Polarization of Chilean Politics, 1964-1970. Cornell University Press. p.180. doi:10.7591/j.ctvh1dn7n. ISBN9781501747182.
↑ Hurtado-Torres, Sebastian (December 2016). The Gathering Storm: The United States, Eduardo Frei's Revolution in Liberty and the Polarization of Chilean Politics, 1964-1970. Cornell University Press. p.191. doi:10.7591/j.ctvh1dn7n. ISBN9781501747182.
↑ Hurtado-Torres, Sebastian (December 2016). The Gathering Storm: The United States, Eduardo Frei's Revolution in Liberty and the Polarization of Chilean Politics, 1964-1970. Cornell University Press. pp.186–187. doi:10.7591/j.ctvh1dn7n. ISBN9781501747182.
1 2 Grayson, Jr., George W. (April 1969). "Chile's Christian Democratic Party: Power, Factions, and Ideology". The Review of Politics. Cambridge University Press. 31 (2): 147–171. doi:10.2307/1406017.
1 2 Michaels, Albert L. (February 1976). "The Alliance for Progress and Chile's "Revolution in Liberty," 1964-1970". Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami. 18 (1): 74–99. doi:10.2307/174817.
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Falange Nacional (1938–1957)
Christian Democratic Party (1957–1992)
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile 
