Mario Venegas

Mario Artidoro Venegas Cárdenas (born 3 December 1957) is a Chilean politician who served as deputy.

He has served as the head of Junaeb.

Early life and family

He was born on 3 December 1957 in Traiguén, the son of Jerardo Augusto Venegas Sepúlveda and Heroína del Carmen Cárdenas.

He is married to Silvana Marcela Gómez Osses and is the father of two children.

Education and professional career

He completed his primary education at Escuela Nº 4 (now Colegio Hermanos Carrera) in Angol and his secondary education at Liceo de Hombres Enrique Ballacey Cottereau in the same city. He pursued higher education at the University of Concepción, where he studied for a Licentiate in Education as a secondary school teacher specializing in History and Geography.

He worked as a teacher at Liceo Lucila Godoy Alcayaga in Traiguén between 1980 and 1991. From 1991 to 2000, he served as technical-pedagogical supervisor at the Provincial Department of Education of Malleco. In 2000, he was acting head of the Education Department of the Regional Secretariat of Education (SECREDUC) of the Ninth Region.

Political career He is a member of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), where he has held leadership positions at the communal and provincial levels.

Between 29 December 2000 and 15 December 2004, he served as Governor of the Province of Malleco.

In December 2005, he was elected deputy representing the Christian Democratic Party for the Araucanía Region (2006–2010 legislative period), District No. 48, obtaining 23,775 votes (35.75% of the valid votes cast). In December 2009, he was re-elected for a second term for the same district (2010–2014).

In the parliamentary elections of November 2013, he was again re-elected as deputy for District No. 48 for the 2014–2018 term, obtaining 45,282 votes (36.44% of the valid votes cast).

In November 2017, he was re-elected as deputy representing the Christian Democratic Party for the new 22nd District, Araucanía Region, within the Convergencia Democrática pact, obtaining 14,991 votes (13.85% of the valid votes cast) for the 2018–2022 legislative period.

In the parliamentary elections of 2021, he did not seek re-election. Law No. 21,238 (2020) established that deputies may be re-elected consecutively for up to two terms.