Black Cuban American Proud Boys Leader Banned From D.C.

News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C., Weds. Jan 6, 2021: Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the Miami-born, Black Cuban American President of the right-wing group, Proud Boys, has been banned from Washington, D.C., ahead of the pro-Trump protest there today.

Tarrio, 36, an entrepreneur who took over the leadership from Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes on November 21, 2018, was on Tuesday banned from the nation’s capital after he was accused of vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic black church and found with high-capacity firearm magazines when he was arrested. He was charged with destruction of property and possession of high-capacity firearm magazines.

The order bans Tarrio from entering the District of Columbia, with very limited exceptions – to meet with his attorney or appear in court. It comes a day after he was arrested arriving in Washington, D.C., ahead of protests planned by supporters of President Donald Trump to coincide with the congressional vote expected in the Senate today to affirm Joe Biden’s election victory.

Tarrio was arrested Monday by the Metropolitan Police Department and accused of burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn down from a historic black church in downtown Washington last month. And one of the Black churches that was targeted last month, Metropolitan AME Church, filed a lawsuit on Monday in D.C. Superior Court against the Proud Boys and Tarrio.

According to the criminal complaint, when police pulled Tarrio over on the warrant for vandalizing the Black Lives Matter sign, officers found two unloaded magazines emblazoned with the Proud Boys logo in his bag that have a capacity of 30 rounds each for AR-15 or M4-style weapons.

Tarrio lives in Miami and was raised in a Cuban family in Little Havana in Miami. He was the Afro-Cuban president of the Miami chapter of the group and worked with and also serves as the Florida director of Latinos for Trump.

Tarrio has said in the past that the group would continue in the same direction by following a new set of by-laws. His next hearing is scheduled for June, according to WAMU.