As a result of his long years at the same post, Toro developed an almost monarch-like control over his garrison and local jurisdiction. Isla Vicuna was in his jurisdiction, and it is his name that impowers the military police to terrorize the island. While he didn't invent the 'fish tax,' he did support his men in enforcing it.

Toro kept no immediate family with him, although he did have a daughter, Isabel. Isabel was a result of Policarpo's chance meeting with a local prostitute, around approximately 1920. A year later, deathly ill, the prostitute appeared at Toro's door, bearing the infant girl, and then promptly dies. In desperation, he turns to his brother Raul, resident of the nearby Isla Vicuna. Raul takes in the child, named her Isabel, and raised her there.

Policarpo's one hobby was geology; he's been fascinated with rocks and stones since he was a child. It is this interest that begins his part in the story of La Republica Vicuna. He died many years later, in 1968.