Hernán del Canto

Hernán Marcelino del Canto Riquelme was a Chilean political scientist, union leader and politician, member of the Socialist Party of Chile.
He served as Minister of the Interior and as Secretary General of Government under President Salvador Allende.

Biography

Family and studies

He was born in Santiago on 21 January 1940, son of Hernán del Canto Valenzuela and Matilde Riquelme. He studied at the Liceo Nocturno Integral No. 7, where he was president of the Federation of Evening Students.
On 2 August 1969 he married María Angélica Rojas Rodríguez, with whom he had two children.

Political career

Del Canto joined the Socialist Party of Chile in 1955. He became Secretary General of the Socialist Youth in 1964 and a member of the Central Committee. He was president of the municipal employees of San Miguel and youth secretary of the Central Única de Trabajadores in 1968.
In 1970 he became vice president of the Pension Fund for Municipal Employees and councillor of the CORFO. In 1971 he ran in a by-election in Valparaíso but lost to Christian Democrat Óscar Marín Socías.
On 10 February 1972 he was appointed Minister of the Interior by Allende, and briefly acted as Minister of Housing and Urbanism.
On 8 August 1972, a constitutional accusation against him was approved for “impeding police action” and “intervening in occupied estates”, leading to his removal as Interior Minister. The same day he was appointed Secretary General of Government, a post he held until 27 March 1973.
During the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, he went to La Moneda Palace to advise Allende to relocate, but the president refused, stating he would remain to defend his mandate.
After the coup, del Canto went into exile in Colombia and later in the German Democratic Republic, where he studied political science.

Later life

With the return of democracy in 1990, he came back to Chile and became vice president of the Socialist Party in 1997.
He died on 13 January 2013 in Santiago, at age 72.