In August 1940, Ramon was actually assigned by Stalin and Beria, the head of the powerful Stalinist Soviet Police (NKVD) to kill Leon Trotskyleader of the October Revolution together Leninthen after the death of the latter was opposed by Stalinexpelled from the Politburo in 1926, from the party in ’27, finally in ’29 forced into exile first in Kazakhstan, then in France and finally in ’39 in Mexico. He was there, at his home in Coyocan, where Trotsky was surrounded by his family and several bodyguards who were killed by Mercader. The Spaniard, then 27, was awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union” in 1960, arriving in Mexico after infiltrating existing anti-Stalinist circles in Paris and New York for more than a year.
After gaining the trust of 61 year old Trotsky entered his house to show him a document and suddenly hit him in the head repeatedly with an ice axe. Trotsky reacted by physically confronting Mercader and warning his guards not to kill him. The old revolutionary died the next day during an operation on his skull, which had been badly damaged by Mercader’s murderous actions. The killer was caught and served about 20 years in prison in Mexico before returning to the Soviet Unionto. Trotsky was the victim of at least several assassination attempts against him. Memories with comparisons to the murder with his nephew Christian De Sica made hundreds of social media users smile, competing to comment with the funniest jokes. Three of them played it: the one who mentioned the imaginary cinepanettone “Christmas in Mexico”; and two people who literally quoted the lines of the great Christian: “My goodness, how anxious” and “so sensitive.”
