Who IS Enrique Tarrio, Leader Of The Proud Boys?

He is their former leader

They may not have been well known before January 6, 2021

The group of men known as the Proud Boys made a name for themselves when they were part of the Capitol riots of January 6, 2021. As a far-right group that supported Donald Trump, they must have been known to Trump and his campaign.

Trump gave a speech at a rally in Washington, D.C. to repeat his false claims that there was widespread fraud in the election and that he won. Then his supporters marched to the Capitol where they caused destruction and death as they tried to stop the certification by Congress of Joe Biden as President.

The Proud Boys is an American far-right, neo-fascist, and exclusively male organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States. Five leaders of the group, including its former chairman, were federally indicted on seditious conspiracy charges in June 2022, for their alleged roles in the 2021 United States Capitol attack.

The group originated in the far-right Taki’s Magazine in 2016 under the leadership of Vice Media co-founder and former commentator Gavin McInnes, taking its name from the song “Proud of Your Boy” from the 2011 Disney musical Aladdin. Although the Proud Boys initially emerged as part of the alt-right, McInnes distanced himself from this movement in early 2017, saying the Proud Boys were alt-lite while the alt-right’s focus was on race. The re-branding effort intensified following the white supremacist Unite the Right rally. Enrique Tarrio has been the chairman of the Proud Boys since late 2018. According to a former federal prosecutor and the transcripts of a 2014 federal court proceeding, Tarrio had previously served as an informant to both federal and local law enforcement. [Wikipedia]

Enrique Tarrio is an activist and a convicted felon. He is a Cuban American who is of Afro-Cuban background. He was the Florida state director of Latinos for Trump. He was a candidate in the Republican primary election for a Florida congressional district in 2020, but he withdrew.

Tarrio had been volunteering at an event in Miami in 2017 for Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right commentator. He encountered a member of the Proud Boys and was encouraged to join the group. He attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that year.

Tarrio became a member of the Proud Boys and assumed the role of chairman of the Proud Boys on November 29, 2018. He has been involved with pro-Trump rallies and marches. He was arrested in Washington, D.C. on a misdemeanor destruction of property charge which was related to a Black Lives Matter banner being stolen and burned. He was sentenced to five months in jail.

After it was reported that Tarrio had been an FBI informant, some of the Proud Boys chapters broke away from the national group.

Although the Proud Boys is an extremist group, Tarrio claims to not be racist.

In regard to his views on white supremacy 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.” In regard to his own ethnicity, he has said, “I’m pretty brown, I’m Cuban. There’s nothing white supremacist about me.”

He has had his legal problems and has been convicted of theft.

Tarrio says he is a close friend of Roger Stone, a Trump ally. He is a strong Trump supporter.

[Reference: Wikipedia]

Thank you for reading.

Not a Medium member? You can join Medium with my referral link. It’s $5 a month for access to all the stories on Medium. Open the link below to join. https://floydforest.medium.com/membership