On August 20, 1940 Leon Trotsky, the exiled Russian revolutionary and rival of Joseph Stalin, was fatally attacked in Coyoacán, a district of Mexico City, by a man who had won the confidence of his circle. The man gave his name as Jacques Mornard and presented himself as a Belgian who had supported Trotsky and then turned against him. Mexican authorities established that he was in fact Ramón Mercader, a Spanish communist who had been enrolled in the Soviet secret police.
He was tried in Mexico City under the name Mornard. In April 1943 the court found him guilty of murdering Trotsky and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. It did not establish the further allegation that he was an agent of the Soviet secret police. Mexico had neither the death penalty nor life imprisonment, and 20 years was the maximum term. He served the sentence in a Mexico City prison and was released on May 6, 1960, then flown to Cuba. He later received Soviet honors and died in Havana in October 1978.
Mercader was born in Barcelona and became a convinced communist. During the Spanish Civil War he fought on the Republican side, and the Soviet secret police enrolled him. He was given the code name Gnome.
His mother was also a communist and an agent of the same service, and she went to Mexico to oversee the operation against Trotsky. In 1946 an indiscretion by his mother in the Soviet Union revealed who he really was, and his treatment in prison became harsher afterward.
Mercader reached Mexico on the passport of a Canadian who had been killed in Spain while serving with the International Brigades. Under the name Jacques Mornard he posed as a Belgian and as a Trotskyist, a role he had already played in Paris. Through these contacts he gained entry to Trotsky's circle in Mexico and became a frequent visitor.
The man held afterward told the authorities that he had acted out of disillusion with Trotsky. In a later account he said the quarrel was over a woman, and in another that jealousy had driven him. He did not give his real name or reveal his handlers during the trial, and suspicion for a time fell on Trotsky's own followers.
The case against Mornard took almost three years to reach a verdict. He was tried and convicted under the name Mornard because the authorities had not settled who he was when the case was decided.
The verdict was read in Mexico City in April 1943 by a court clerk and ran to 118 pages. It found the defendant guilty of murdering Leon Trotsky on August 20, 1940 and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. The prosecution had also alleged that he was an agent of the Soviet secret police, and the court did not establish that charge.
Twenty years was the longest term Mexican law allowed. Because Mexico City had no capital punishment and no life sentence, the court could not go further.
His first request for conditional release was rejected in 1944. He became a model prisoner. He ran the prison radio shop and taught illiterate inmates to read and write. He had books and weekly visits, and he received money from a source that was never identified.
He was released on May 6, 1960, about three months before his term would have expired. Mexico was said at the time to be glad to be rid of an undesirable figure and to avoid demonstrations. He was flown to Cuba on an airliner with two Czechoslovak companions, and within the week he had left Cuba and was presumed to be bound for Czechoslovakia.
After his release he traveled to Moscow, where he received the title Hero of the Soviet Union. He was one of 41 foreigners to hold the Hero title. He then divided his time between Cuba and the Soviet Union and lived in Havana in his last years. He died there on October 18, 1978.
Mexico had abolished capital punishment by the time of the trial. A person convicted of murder in Mexico City therefore faced a fixed maximum of 20 years, and the court imposed it. Release before the end of a term was possible for good conduct, and Mercader's release in 1960 came about three months early. His release was also described at the time as a deportation of an unwelcome figure.
The case shows how long a false identity can last in court. The Mexican court convicted a defendant whose name was not his own, and it could not establish the secret police link the prosecution alleged. His real identity became known only later, from 1946 onward.
The prosecution's claim that he acted for the Soviet secret police was not established by the court in 1943. His own accounts of his motive, disillusion with Trotsky and a quarrel over a woman, were not accepted as a full explanation.
Born in Barcelona.
1936 to 1939: Fights in the Spanish Civil War and is enrolled by the Soviet secret police.
1940: Reaches Mexico under a false identity and joins the circle around Trotsky.
August 20, 1940: Trotsky is fatally attacked in Coyoacán; the man held is tried as Jacques Mornard.
April 1943: Convicted of Trotsky's murder in Mexico City and sentenced to 20 years.
1944: First request for conditional release rejected.
1946: His real identity is revealed through his mother's indiscretion in the Soviet Union.
May 6, 1960: Released and flown to Cuba.
1960 to 1978: Honored in the Soviet Union; divides his time between Cuba and Moscow.
October 18, 1978: Dies in Havana.