Comrade Miguel Enriquez, general secretary of the MIR, has been murdered by the hangmen of the Santiago military junta. Carmen Castillo, who was with Enriquez during the attack of Pinochet's gangsters, was seriously wounded and is now being held at the mercy of the repressive forces.
The disappearance of Miguel Enriquez from the political scene is a heavy blow to the MIR and to the whole Latin American revolutionary movement. Enriquez made an essential contribution to the creation and development of the MIR ever since its 1967 congress, at which he was elected general secretary. He tried to create a combat organization based above all on the experiences of the Cuban revolution and the heroic struggle of Che Guevara.
Miguel Enriquez died in combat and his sacrifice is testimony to the combative spirit of the Chilean revolutionary vanguard, which has rejected all compromise with the dictatorship and is prepared to plunge into the hardest battles. His declarations after the coup never fell into mindless optimism; on the contrary, they stressed the enormous difficulties that revolutionaries and all militants of the workers movement confronted and would continue to confront. At the same time, they revealed a lucid awareness of the thorny political problems that were posed for his party and the revolutionary left, faced on the one hand with brutal repression and the extermination of so many cadres and militants and on the other hand with the pressures exerted by the reformists of the SP and the CP, who have learned nothing from the tragic experience of September 11.
The name of Miguel Enriquez is inscribed in the roll of martyrs of the Latin American and world revolution. His sacrifice will be an example for the new generations who will continue his fight, the fight of Che Guevara and all the martyrs of the workers movement, from Mexico to Argentina, from Bolivia to Guatemala.
The Fourth International shares the grief of the militants of the MIR and pledges itself to continue the fight against the murderers of Enriquez and their allies and patrons throughout the world.
MILITANT SOLIDARITY WITH THE MIR!
LONG LIVE THE LATIN AMERICAN SOCIALIST REVOLUTION!
October 8, 1974