Miguel Enríquez

Miguel Enríquez Espinosa (March 27, 1944 - October 5, 1974 ) was a physician and the General Secretary of the Chilean Marxist-Leninist political party Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) (Spanish Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria) between 1967 and his death in 1974.

After the September 11, 1973 coup Enriquez would organise and lead an underground résistance against the Pinochet dictatorship. After a year of clandestinity Pinochet’s secret police DINA would uncover his location in a working class district of Santiago from where he wrote, worked and organised his political organisation and supporters. On October 5, 1974 his house was surrounded by DINA agents backed by hundreds of heavily armed security forces personnel with tanks and helicopter. Enriquez refused to surrender and he died from the ensuing grenade bombing of his home and fire exchange.

Biography
Miguel was born in Concepción, Chile into the middle class family of Edgardo Enríquez Frodden and Raquel Espinosa Townsend. His father Enríquez Frodden had been a prominent academic and political figure in Chile. He was a doctor specialized in the field of anatomy and rector of the University of Concepción, Chile (1969-1972) and had been a prominent figure in the Partido Radical (Radical Party) - in 1973 he was appointed by Salvador Allende to the position of Minister of Education in the Popular Unity government. His mother Espinosa Townsend graduated from the School of Law of the University of Concepción, Chile.

At the age of 16 Enriquez enters the University of Concepcion, Chile to study medicine. At the age of 23 he graduates with a Medical Degree, which he obtains with the highest distinction which earned him at the same time a specialization scholarship to attend the Neurological Institute of Santiago de Chile. He specializes and is trained as a Neurologist.

Enriquez was a great debater, always citing works of world revolutionary history, well read in the literature of Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg, he studied the Chinese revolution, he knew in great detail the events of the Cuban Revolution and had extensive knowledge of Chilean history. He was a Carrerist; an admirer of Manuel Rodríguez; critical of the historical role of Bernardo O'Higgins and he enjoyed engaging in discussion with people who held views different to his.

Criticism of the Popular Unity government
Under his leadership the MIR provided only critical support to the Unidad Popular (UP) (Popular Unity) government headed by Salvador Allende between 1970 to 1973. Highly critical of the reformist role being played by the Communist Party of Chile in the Popular Unity government, the MIR became the object of considerable criticism and attacks by both the left and right of the political establishment. The MIR vehemently attacked the reluctance of the Popular Unity government to utilize the organs of Popular Power the UP itself had called upon the Chilean working class to form.

As the U.P. coalition headed by Salvador Allende leant more on constitutional legality and the "neutral tradition" of the Chilean armed forces to maintain its framework, the MIR called for the independent mobilization of the working class via its independently created organs of Popular Power to defend the process.

Much of the criticism of the reformist program of the Popular Unity government and prognoses made by the MIR under Miguel Enriquez came to pass as the deepest political crisis in Chile was resolved by one of the bloodiest military coup d’etat in recorded history.

September 11, 1973 Military Coup
After the September 11, 1973 coup Miguel Enriquez and other members of the MIR refused to accept political asylum in foreign embassies and rejected a condition of exile outside their country – considering the act of fleeing for personal security a form of betrayal to their socialist cause. Instead they began to organize a résistance against the Pinochet dictatorship during its most repressive and macabre period.

One of the first and major undertakings of Pinochet’s secret police DINA was to exterminate by all means the leadership of the MIR. The MIR became of particular concern to Pinochet because it had had no formal ties with the Popular Unity government that quickly fell after the coup; much of its activities were of a spontaneous and irregular nature; they also had had ties to rank and file soldiers and sub officers in the Chilean Armed Forces. The MIR became the object of Pinochet’s paranoia; he came to consider the MIR the only political organization that could pose a threat to the consolidation of his rule in Chile. As a result between 1973-1976 most of its young leaders like Miguel Enriquez and Bautista von Schouwen were murdered. The rettig report (Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation) emphasized the repression against the MIR and noted that its members suffered an almost exclusive form of persecution and more assassinations than any other political organization in Chile.

After the coup d'état by the armed forces against Allende's government on Tuesday 11 September 1973 Miguel was one of the main leaders in the resistance against the military junta led by Augusto Pinochet. This proved to be a precarious existence and Miguel was killed in a gun fight with agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) (National Intelligence Directorate) in the suburban home were he was carrying out his clandestine resistance work. He is interred in the Cementerio General de Chile in Santiago and the medicine faculty of the Superior Institute of Medicine of La Habana, Cuba, has been named in his honour.

Miguel Enríquez Quotes
The reformist illusion was paid for and is being paid for by the working class, its leaders and parties, which heroically and tragically defended it to the last moment, confirming in a dramatic fashion the phrase of the XVIII Century French revolutionary Louis de Saint-Just: “Those who make revolution half way only dig their own graves”.

The reformist project put in place by the UP enclosed itself within the bourgeois order…it aimed to forge an alliance with sectors of the bourgeoisie, it didn’t lean on the revolutionary organizations of the working class, in its own organs of popular power, it rejected an alliance with rank and file soldiers and sub officers in the armed forces, it sought to seal an alliance with the bourgeois faction. The reformist illusions allowed the ruling classes to prevail in the superstructure of the state from where it launched its reactionary counter offensive, by, firstly, leaning on private-sector federations, on the petty-bourgeoisie and finally on high-ranking officials of the Chilean Armed Forces…