Samuel Venegas

Samuel Venegas Rubio (born 1 April 1938) is a Chilean politician who served as deputy from 1994 to 2010.

He began his political involvement in 1952, when he was elected class president and delegate to the student government for one year. In 1955, he founded and became the first president of the National Falange in the commune of Navidad, his hometown, serving until 1957. That same year, he participated in the founding of the Christian Democratic Party (DC) in his commune and served as its first president until 1960. He is married to Liliana Rubio and is the father of four children.

He completed his primary education at the Public School of Navidad and the School of Litueche, and his secondary education at Liceo Juan Dante Parraguez in San Antonio.

Role in the civil society Alongside his political activities, in 1953 he founded Club Deportivo Navidad, a football club which he presided over until 1956. That same year, he was one of the founders of the Navidad Football Association, serving as its president until 1958.

Between 1967 and 1971, he served as president of Neighborhood Council No. 22 San Pedro ―commune of San Antonio― and joined the Second Fire Company of the city. From 1970 to 1975, he was a board member of Club Deportivo y Social San Antonio Unido Portuario. In 1974, he founded Club de Ciclismo Horizonte, presiding over it until 1977, and thereafter serving as its honorary president until 1993.

Between 1971 and 1976, he presided over the Confederación del Rodado, an organization representing transport entrepreneurs in Melipilla and San Antonio. From 1977 to 1992, he served as president of Sociedad de Transporte y Turismo Pullman Bus.

Concurrently, he was provincial vice president of the Wholesale Chamber of Commerce (1978–1985), vice president of the San Antonio Development Corporation (1981–1987), and vice president of the National Federation of Owners of Rural, Interprovincial and International Buses of Chile (Fenabus) (1983–1986). Within Fenabus, he chaired the Labor Commission between 1988 and 1991. From 1995 onward, he presided over the Federation of Social Organizations of San Antonio (FOSANPROSALUD).

Political career In 1963, he was elected as regidor (municipal councillor) for the commune of San Antonio and was re-elected in 1967, serving until 1971. Concurrently, between 1964 and 1970, he coordinated the Self-Construction Housing Plan in the Santa Laura, Agustín Krebs, and Juana Dip neighborhoods in San Antonio.

He also advised housing cooperatives and port workers’ organizations in Villa Italia, Montemar, and Puerto Aduana. Between 1965 and 1971, he served as coordinator of the Christian Democratic Party (DC) at the Institute for Agricultural Development (INDAP) and within peasant unions in the communes of Santo Domingo and San Antonio.

In 1970, he acted as general campaign manager for Radomiro Tomic's presidential candidacy in the Department of San Antonio and also served as vice president of the Social Development Corporation of San Antonio.

Between 1988 and 1990, he was provincial councillor of the DC, and from June to December 1990 he served as first communal vice president in San Antonio. From 1990 to 1992, he was provincial president of the party in the area, and was re-elected for the periods 1993–1995 and 1995–1997.

In 1998, he resigned from the Christian Democratic Party and joined the Radical Social Democratic Party (PRSD). On 1 September 2009, he resigned from the PRSD and remained politically independent. In the parliamentary elections of that year, he chose not to seek re-election to the Chamber of Deputies.

He was a candidate for Regional Councillor (CORE) for San Antonio in 2013 but was not elected. In 2016, he replaced the late Pedro Piña Mateluna as Regional Councillor. In December 2017, he again ran for Regional Councillor as an independent supported by the Socialist Party but was not elected.