Vittorio Vidali (b. 1900-?) (aka Vittorio Vidale, Enea Sormenti, Jacobo Hurwitz Zender, Carlos Contreras, "Comandante Carlos") was a Stalinist assassin and what is commonly called a "communist" agent. Born in Vidale was born in Trieste Italy, he became a Bolshevik according to Fascist police files. Vidali is said one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party, but was expelled from the country after the Fascists' ascended to power led by Benito Mussolini in 1922. Outside of Spain where Vidale is said to have killed 400, he is known primarily for orchestrating the deaths in Mexico of Julio Antonio Mella and Stalin rival Leon Trotsky, and the public notoriety of his lurid love life.
After Italy, Vidali relocated to Moscow, where he was enlisted into the Stalinist secret police. There he was officially rebuked for indulging in love affairs when in Moscow (Cacucci, 1999). With Red Aid as his cover, Vidali was sent by the Comintern to Mexico to discipline its Communist Party. In Mexico this Communist Party agent is best known for his romantic involvement with communist photographer Tina Modotti who previously had been a lover of Diego Rivera.
Move to Mexico
In Mexico Vidale’s interest in Modotti, is believed related to killing of her then current lover, Cuban communist Julio Mella, a founder of the stalinist version of the Communist party of Cuban who had fled the Cuba in Gerardo Machado’s time, to joined and then leave the Mexican Communist Party.
The Murder of Julio Mella
Many political murders, often of communist backsliders, have been attributed to Vidale's "bloody hand." This famous operative is immortalized in Diego Rivera's mural "In the Arsenal." [1]. The extreme left of the mural shows beautiful photographer and silent film actress Tina Modotti holding a belt of ammunition at the extreme left. Vidale, head stares suspicious from under a black hat, as he peers over her shoulder, as Tina gazes lovingly at Julio Antonio Mella (shown with light colored hat). It is noted that in an avowedly communist web site Mella, Modotti and Vidale are cropped from the image [2]. .
Given the closeness of Diego Rivera to the people involved, and the fact that it is said to slightly predate the murder, some consider this fresco painting to be evidence of Vidale's and Rivera's involvement in Mella's assassination and this work of art is said to relate to Rivera's expulsion from the Mexican Communist Party.
Vidale is believed to have used his revolver he commonly carried, rather than the .45 caliber 1911 Colt Automatic, that Tina Modotti kept in her house, to murder Mella January 10, 1929 one month after Mella was expelled from the Mexican Communist Party for association with trotskyites. Mella had rejoined the communist party, just two weeks prior to his death, although this circumstance like much else related to Vidale is murky.
After Mella's death Vidale "inherited" Tina Modotti. Tina is also believed to have been another ruthless communist assassin more in love with "the cause" than any individual [3]. She was with Mella holding his arm when Mella was killed, as shown allegorically in the Diego Rivera Mural. Thus, Modotti was believed by some to have participated in this “Stalinist” plot to eliminate Mella. Vidale's rivalry for Tina Modotti's affections may have been partial motive for Vidale's to kill to carry out the murder.
The Mella assassination illustrates the complexity of those times and demonstrates Vidale and his "manager's" skill at obfuscation and covering his tracks. Officially José Agustín López (said to have no particular political affiliations), was charged with Mella’s murder, but two other known killers, Jose Magriñat and Antonio Sanabría were also suspected. The police investigating this crime were given conflicting eyewitness reports. In one version, Mella and Modotti were walking alone, in another Vidale was said walking with Mella and Tina Modotti. Since Mellas' wounds were from point blank range, neither Modotti or Vidale were injured, and Modotti gave a false name to the investigators, the police were suspicious of her alibi. Modotti was arrested, but soon released. Magriñat, who had also been arrested was then released, and he apparently a loose end was ultimately killed in Cuba by “Communists” in 1933 (Albers, 2002).
The official position of the present Cuban government is still that Mella was killed at Gerardo Machado's orders, but it admits that Tina Modotti was a Stalinist operative who operated in a number of countries. How Machado’s men could have operated alone and independantly in the highly politicized environment of Mexico City is not explained. Adding to the mystery, (according to Abers (2002) both Magriñat, and Diego Rivera who had just returned from Cuba had warned Mella that he was in danger. [4].
The Spanish Civil War
After Mexico, and during the 1930s, Vidali, and Modotti went to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, where Vidale headed the anti-Trotskyist faction of the International Brigades in Spain, and is thought to have participated in the assassinations of many who were thought anti-Stalinist there. In Republican Spain, many of the "accidental deaths" of fellow loyalists were said done by him and as a result Vidale was much feared.
Return to Mexico
Vidale, returned to Mexico and was definitely involved in the May 24, 1940 failed frontal assault on Trotsky's residence in Mexico City along with GPU agent Iosif Romualdovich Grigulevich, Mexican Stalinist painter David Alfaro Siqueiros and Vittorio Vidale. And Vidale is understood to have been involved with the insertion of assassin Ramon Mercader into Trotsky's inner circle. Mercader then used an ice axe was to kill Trotsky in his home.
Return to Italy
External links
Julio Mella[5] Cuban Communist History[6] Modotti [7]
Printed sources
Albers, Patricia 2002 Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti. Clarkson Potter 382 pages; ISBN 0-609-60069-9
Cacucci, Pino (Translated by Patricia J. Duncan) 1999 Tina Modotti: A Life. St. Martin's Press 225 pages; ISBN 0-312-20036-26
González Aguayo, Rosa María, René Aguilar Díaz, Gerardo Aragón Carrillo, Eduardo Morales Trujado, Jaime Peralta Benitez, and Enrique Salame Méndez (accessed 05/12/2005) Diego Rivera, Chapingo, Capilla Riveriana. Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo. http://www.chapingo.mx/academicos/capilla/Nrev/ND1.htm
Ross, Marjorie 2004 El secreto encanto de la KGB: las cinco vidas de Iósif Griguliévich editorial Farben/Norma, Costa Rica
Thomas, Hugh 1997 The Spanish Civil War. Harper and Row, New York Revised and enlarged edition. ISBN 0060142782
Thomas, Hugh 1998 Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom Da Capo Press; Updated edition (April, 1998) ISBN: 0306808277