Enrique Tarrio (1985-) was a Miami-based white nationalist figure who served as national chairman of the far-right Proud Boys group and leader of the Republican grassroots group "Latinos for Trump".
Biography[]
Enrique Tarrio was born in Little Havana, Miami, Florida in 1985 to a family of Cuban descent. He was a criminal as a young man, as he was convicted of theft in 2004 and rebranding and reselling stolen medical devices in 2013. Tarrio became a small businessman, initially running a North Florida poultry farm before becoming a security equipment installation company owner, a GPS tracking company owner, and the owner of a right-wing T-shirt company. He joined the Proud Boys in 2017 after meeting them at an event hosted by Milo Yiannopoulos, and he attended the Unite the Right rally in Virginia to protest the removal of Confederate statues from Charlottesville. Tarrio came to prominence following the 29 September 2020 presidential debate between Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, when new attention was brought to the Proud Boys after Trump told them to "stand back and stand by" when moderator Chris Wallace and Biden called on Trump to encourage the white supremacist militias to "stand down". Tarrio later denied that Trump had endorsed the Proud Boys, but he bragged about the new attention given to the group by Trump's apparent order, contradicting himself. On 1 October 2020, it was revealed that, in addition to being an alt-right leader, he was also chair of one of Trump's major grassroots organizations, despite Trump claiming to not be aware of the Proud Boys' existence. He briefly ran for the US House of Representatives in FL-27, campaigning for criminal justice reform, gun rights, countering domestic terrorism, ending the War on Drugs, free speech on digital platforms, and immigration reform; he dropped out during the Republican primary. On 4 January 2021, he was arrested in Washington DC for tearing down a Black Lives Matter banner during a pro-Trump march on 12 December 2020, but he went on to help coordinate the 2021 United States coup d'etat attempt two days later. On 5 September 2023, Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for enhancing terrorism, although his attorney claimed that Tarrio had only intended to "save the republic," and Tarrio tearfully wept and begged for the judge not to "take (his) 40s from (him)."