Enrique Tarrio

Henry "Enrique" Tarrio (born 1984 or 1985[2]) is the chairman of the Proud Boys, a far-right, neo-fascist and male-only political organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States and Canada.[7] In 2020, he was a candidate in the Republican primary election for Florida's 27th congressional district, but withdrew.[3][8][6] Tarrio, who is Afro-Cuban,[8] served as the Florida state director of the grassroots organization Latinos for Trump.[9][10][11]

Enrique Tarrio
Tarrio, in a gathering in 2020
Born
Henry Tarrio Jr.[1]

1984/1985 (age 36–37)[2]
Miami, Florida, United States[3]
Occupation
Political partyRepublican[3][6]

Life and career

Henry Tarrio, Jr. was born in 1984 or 1985 and raised in Little Havana, a poor neighborhood in Miami, Florida.[1][2][12] Tarrio identifies as Afro-Cuban.[4][11] He has been married and divorced.[4]

After 2004, Tarrio relocated to a small town in North Florida to run a poultry farm. He later returned to Miami.[4] He has also founded a security equipment installation firm and another providing GPS tracking for companies.[4] Tarrio owns a Miami T-shirt business, known as the 1776 Shop, an online vendor for right-wing merchandise.[5][13] Slate described the 1776 Shop as a "freewheeling online emporium for far-right merch" that sells a range of Proud Boys gear including shirts stating "Pinochet did nothing wrong".[14]

Proud Boys
Further information: Proud Boys
Tarrio

The Proud Boys is a far-right, neo-fascist, and male-only white nationalist organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States and Canada.[15]

Tarrio volunteered at a Miami event for far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos in May 2017 where he encountered a member of the Proud Boys who encouraged him to join the group.[4] In August 2017, Tarrio attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.[16] He said he was there to protest the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials.[17]

Tarrio became a fourth-degree member of the Proud Boys, a distinction reserved for those who get into a physical altercation, after punching someone who is believed to be aligned with antifa in the face in June 2018.[18] He assumed the role of chairman for the organization on November 29, 2018, succeeding Jason Lee Van Dyke, who held the position for two days, and Van Dyke's predecessor Gavin McInnes.[19][20]

Tarrio helped organize the End Domestic Terrorism rally held in Portland, Oregon, on August 17, 2019.[21] The event, co-organized by Joe Biggs, was framed as a response to the June 2019 assault on conservative blogger Andy Ngo.[22][23]

Tarrio attended a pro-Trump march on December 12, 2020 in Washington, D.C. along with around 200 other Proud Boys. He was later arrested in connection to the march, on a misdemeanor destruction of property charge related to the burning of a Black Lives Matter flag stolen from a church.[24]

Arrests and criminal convictions

In 2004, when he was 20 years old, Tarrio was convicted of theft. He was sentenced to community service and three years of probation and was ordered to pay restitution.[4] In 2013, Tarrio was sentenced to 30 months (of which he spent 16) in federal prison for rebranding and reselling stolen medical devices.[25][26][27] According to a January 2021 Reuters report, between 2012 and 2014 Tarrio had been an informant to both federal and local law enforcement; in a 2014 federal court hearing, Tarrio's lawyer said that Tarrio had been a "prolific" cooperator who had assisted the government in the investigation and prosecution of more than twelve people in cases involving anabolic steroids, gambling, and human smuggling; had helped identify three "grow houses" where marijuana was cultivated; and had repeatedly worked undercover to aid in investigations. Tarrio denied working undercover or cooperating with prosecutions, but the court transcript contradicted the denial, and the former federal prosecutor in the proceeding against Tarrio confirmed that he cooperated.[28][29]

Tarrio was arrested by Washington, D.C. police on January 4, 2021 and charged with one misdemeanor count of destruction of property in connection with the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner stolen from a Washington, D.C. church during a pro-Trump march on December 12, 2020 that drew around 200 Proud Boys. Tarrio acknowledged that he had burned the banner, but denied that the act was a hate crime.[24][30] Tarrio was also charged with two felony counts of possession of a high capacity feeding device after two high-capacity firearms magazines were found on Tarrio when he was arrested.[31][32] A statement released by African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was one of two historically black churches in D.C. targeted on December 12, said that the church had sued Tarrio and the Proud Boys organization.[33][34] After his release on January 5, 2021, Tarrio was banned from entering Washington, DC, except for trial or meeting with his lawyers.[35][36][37][38] The FBI later said they had arrested Tarrio in an attempt to prevent the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.[28]

Political views

In regard to his views on extremist groups and ideologies, Tarrio has been quoted as saying, "I denounce white supremacy. I denounce anti-Semitism. I denounce racism. I denounce fascism. I denounce communism and any other -ism that is prejudiced towards people because of their race, religion, culture, tone of skin."[39] In regard to his own ethnicity, he has said, "I'm pretty brown, I'm Cuban. There's nothing white supremacist about me."[16]

After Tarrio confronted and shouted expletives at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Coral Gables in late 2018, the chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party apologized and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio compared the disruptors to the "repudiation mobs Castro has long ago used in Cuba."[1]

In 2018, Twitter removed Tarrio's account, amongst others related to the Proud Boys, citing how platform policy prohibited accounts related to violent extremist groups. The following year, another account created by Tarrio to evade the suspension was detected and removed from the platform by Twitter.[40]

Tarrio is a close friend of Roger Stone,[10] a Trump ally who is a high-profile Proud Boys supporter.[5] After Stone was arrested in January 2019, Tarrio appeared outside the courtroom in a shirt emblazoned with the message "Roger Stone did nothing wrong".[41] At a "Stop the Steal" rally in December 2020, Tarrio stood on stage with Stone.[42]

Tarrio began a run for Congress for Florida's 27th district in 2020, but withdrew before the Republican Party primary. In his campaign's responses to a Ballotpedia survey done in 2019, Tarrio listed criminal justice reform, protection of the Second Amendment, countering domestic terrorism, ending the war on drugs, free speech on digital platforms, and immigration reform among some of his priorities.[3]

References
  1. Smiley, David; Gamez Torrez, Nora; Hall, Kevin G. (October 2, 2020). "Proud Boys try to assimilate into Florida GOP as Trump denies knowing extremist group". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on October 4, 2020.
  2. Steinhauer, Jennifer; Benner, Katie; Schmitt, Eric; Cooper, Helene (January 4, 2021). "Leader of Proud Boys, a Far-Right Group, Is Arrested as D.C. Braces for Protests". The New York Times. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  3. "Enrique Tarrio". Ballotpedia. Archived from the original on June 19, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  4. O'Connor, Meg (December 10, 2018). "Hate Goes Mainstream With the Miami Proud Boys". Miami New Times. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  5. MacFarquhar, Neil; Feuer, Alan; Baker, Mike; Frenkel, Sheera (September 30, 2020). "Far-Right Group That Trades in Political Violence Gets a Boost". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
  6. "FEC Form 2 for Report FEC-1361386". docquery.fec.gov. Archived from the original on October 7, 2020. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  7. The Proud Boys are far-right: Fascist: Male-only:
    • Sernau, Scott (2019). Social Inequality in a Global Age. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9781544309309. The Proud Boys, an all-male neo-fascist group [...].
    • Álvarez, Rebecca (2020). Vigilante Gender Violence: Social Class, the Gender Bargain, and Mob Attacks on Women Worldwide. Routledge. ISBN 978-1000174137. The Proud Boys are a neo-fascist masculinist hate group.
    • "'Proud Boys' back in Canada military after crashing indigenous ceremony". BBC News. August 31, 2017. Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved July 21, 2018.
    Extremism and racism:
    • "Proud Boys". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
    • Lowry, Rich (October 19, 2018). "The Poisonous Allure of Right-Wing Violence". National Review. Archived from the original on October 22, 2018. Retrieved November 13, 2018. McInnes is open about his glorification of violence. In a speech, he described a clash with Antifa outside a talk he gave at NYU last year: 'My guys are left to fight. And here's the crucial part: We do. And we beat the crap out of them.' He related what a Proud Boy who got arrested told him afterward: 'It was really, really fun.' According to McInnes: 'Violence doesn't feel good. Justified violence feels great. And fighting solves everything.'
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  15. Far-right: Fascist: Men only:
    • Sernau, Scott (2019). Social Inequality in a Global Age. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9781544309309. The Proud Boys, an all-male neo-fascist group [...].
    • Álvarez, Rebecca (2020). Vigilante Gender Violence: Social Class, the Gender Bargain, and Mob Attacks on Women Worldwide. Routledge. ISBN 978-1000174137. The Proud Boys are a neo-fascist masculinist hate group.
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    White nationalist or white supremacist: Extremism and racism:
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    • Lowry, Rich (October 19, 2018). "The Poisonous Allure of Right-Wing Violence". National Review. Archived from the original on October 22, 2018. Retrieved November 13, 2018. McInnes is open about his glorification of violence. In a speech, he described a clash with Antifa outside a talk he gave at NYU last year: 'My guys are left to fight. And here's the crucial part: We do. And we beat the crap out of them.' He related what a Proud Boy who got arrested told him afterward: 'It was really, really fun.' According to McInnes: 'Violence doesn't feel good. Justified violence feels great. And fighting solves everything.'
  16. Orecchio-Egresitz, Haven (September 30, 2020). "The Proud Boys chairman says members of the organization are running for office — and you might not know if you're voting for one". Insider. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
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  18. Coaston, Jane (October 15, 2018). "The Proud Boys, explained". Vox. Archived from the original on October 3, 2020. Retrieved October 2, 2020. became a fourth-degree Proud Boy after punching a purported member of antifa in the face in June 2018.
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