Miguel Enríquez

Who was Miguel Enríquez?

Miguel Enríquez Espinosa was a physician and one founder of the Chilean political party and former left-wing organization Movement of the Revolutionary Left, founded 1965. He was General Secretary of the MIR between 1967 and his death in 1974.

After the September 11, 1973 coup Enriquez led the political-military resistance of MIR against the newly established dictatorship.

After a year of Enríquez operating in clandestinity, Pinochet's secret police, the DINA uncovered his safe-house in the working class district of San Miguel in Santiago. On October 5, 1974 his house was surrounded by far-right terrorists, DINA agents backed by heavily armed security forces personnel with an armored personnel carrier and a helicopter. He was wounded in the beginning of the assault covering the retreat of his pregnant wife and two other men that fled. He received ten bullet wounds, including one to the head. There are no reliable sources that prove he was armed when murdered.

His son, Marco Enríquez-Ominami, is a prominent politician in Chile, was a candidate for the presidential election of 2009, and then again in 2013, losing both elections.