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”. 

Enrique 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 lead the 2021 United States coup d’état attempt two days later.

Before, In August 2018, he was one of the Proud Boys members who were suspended from Twitter for violating the microblogging site’s policies on violent extremist groups. He created a new account under the new name @HonoredChair. Under the new name @HonoredChair, he tweeted on March 10, 2019, that he would name an illegal immigrant and report him or her to Immigration and Customs Enforcement if any Proud Boys member’s personal information leaked online. Twitter suspended his account on March 12, 2019. He said the site explained to him via an email that he had been removed for evading suspension.

On November 21, 2018, he became the chairman of the Proud Boys. He replaced Gavin McInnes, who founded the group in 2016.

He did not physically take part in the breach of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021, but he was accused of leading the advance planning and remaining in contact with other members of the Proud Boys during their breach of the U.S. Capitol.

He was 38 years old when he was arrested in Miami on March 8, 2022. He was indicted on one count of each conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and obstruction of an official proceeding and two counts of destruction of government property and two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. On June 6, 2022, he, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola were charged with seditious conspiracy.

Regarding 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”. Regarding his own ethnicity, he has said, “I’m pretty brown, I'm Cuban. There's nothing white supremacist about me.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org