Background
His mother was Doris Haddad, a Lebanese Jew, who migrated from Lebanon to Venezuela.
His mother was Doris Haddad, a Lebanese Jew, who migrated from Lebanon to Venezuela.
Benegas" father was José María Benegas Echeverría, an exiled Basque Nationalist politician, who fled Spain in 1939 following the victory of Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. He then briefly moved to London to study English and Economics. On his return, he joined the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and the affiliated Trade Union, the Unión General de Trabajadores.
In 1977 he entered national politics when he was elected to the Spanish national parliament as a deputy for Biscay Province and was re-elected at the 1979 election.
However, in February 1980, he resigned from Congress in order to head the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) list for Guipuzcoa in the elections to the Basque parliament and was elected to that legislature. He returned to the Spanish Congress at the 1982 General Election representing Álava Province.
However he resigned in February 1984 after being chosen to head the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) list in the Basque parliamentary elections. Despite the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) increasing their vote and more than doubling their number of seats from 9 to 19, he was unsuccessful in his bid to become Lehendakari or President of the autonomous government of the Basque Country.
That office was retained by the Basque Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista Vasco (Basque Nationalist Party)), which formed the government after those elections.
However, after one year the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (Basque Nationalist Party) entered into an agreement with the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) for legislative support and in 1986 a split in the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (Basque Nationalist Party) led to the formation of Eusko Alkartasuna. As a result, the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (Basque Nationalist Party) lacked sufficient support to govern and was forced to call early elections in 1986 at which Benegas was again the candidate for Basque President. In 1989 Benegas returned to national politics when he was elected to the Congress, representing Biscay.
In 1974 he was elected Secretary of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party)"s youth wing and also became Vice-Secretary of the International Socialist Youth movement. Although the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) managed to overtake the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (Basque Nationalist Party) as the largest party in the new legislature, the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (Basque Nationalist Party) candidate José Antonio Ardanza was re-elected President of the Basque autonomous community.
He was re-elected at every subsequent General Election until 2011 and was one of the few members of the Constituent Cortes (1977-1979) in the 2011 legislature.
