Juan Vargas Puebla

Juan Diógenes Vargas Puebla (8 August 1908 – 21 January 1992) was a Chilean construction worker, trade union leader and communist politician.

Biography Vargas Puebla was born in La Serena, Chile, on 8 August 1908.

He worked as a stucco worker and became active in the labor movement at an early age. In 1924, he served as Secretary of the Libertarian Youth Federation of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Santiago. In 1928, he was Secretary of the Professional Union of Stucco Workers of Santiago.

After moving to Valparaíso in 1936, he joined the port’s URE and represented it at the congress that founded the FINC. That same year, he served as Secretary of the Federation of Trade Unions of Aconcagua. In 1943, he became a national councillor of the Confederation of Workers of Chile (CTCH), and in 1944 he was a member of the secretariat of the Confederation of Workers of Latin America (CTAL). He later participated in the National Executive Council of the Central Workers’ Union (CUT) during the periods 1953–1959 and 1962–1968.

Political career Vargas Puebla joined the Communist Party in 1932. He later entered the National Progressive Party and subsequently returned to the Communist Party.

At the municipal level, he served as a councillor of the Municipality of Valparaíso between 1938 and 1941, as a councillor of the Municipality of Santiago between 1967 and 1970, and as a councillor of the [Municipality of San Javier in 1971.

He was elected Deputy for the 6th Departmental Group —Valparaíso and Quillota— for the 1945–1949 term. During his parliamentary service, he served on the Standing Committees on Government Interior; Constitution, Legislation and Justice; and Agriculture and Colonization.

Following the 1973 military coup, he went into exile in Mexico, where he worked at the Universidad Obrera Vicente Lombardo Toledano. After the end of the military regime, he visited Chile but remained resident in Mexico.

Vargas Puebla died in Mexico on 21 January 1992.