The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-01-12


$50 the office of the Assoc
Emigres from Cuba, of which
Mella was secretary. Mella had
an appointment with a man at
a certain cafe near the center
of the city, and Tina waited in a
cable office nearby until he came
back. When Mella returned he told
Tina that a Cuban had warned him
that two Machado agents had ar
rived with orders to kill him. Mella
and Tina proceeded along the dimly
lighted abraham Gonzales Street"
When they arrived at the corner
Of Morelos Street two shots were
fired out of the shadows.
The assailants were so near that
Tina was burnt by the flash of their
guns. Mella fell wounded as the as
sassins darted away. He was rushed
to the hospital where he was oper-
ated on for two hours. At first re-
covery seemed possible, but at 1
a. m. Mella relapsed and at 1859 he
died.
Pres ent at the operating table at
Mella's death were Diego Rivera,
Communist painter and member of
the Central Executive Committee of
the Mexican Communist Party;
Frances Toor, editor of Mexican
Folkways, and several others. Out
side in the courtyard comrades and
friends watched bulletins issued
from time to time. For many
months, the Machado press in Cuba
has published articles saying that
the Machado government would
"get" its foes no matter where they
were.
Mella was an outstanding revo-
lutionary in Latin America. He was
so active as secretary of the Cuban
Communist Party that the Machado
government framed him on charges
of participating in a bomb plot.
Mella was imprisoned and con-
demned to death. He went on a
hunger strike, and the demonstra-
tions of an aroused working class
forced his release. Later he was
exiled and went first to Central
America, then to Mexico. Here he
became member of the Central
Executive Committee of the Mexican
Communist Party and secretary of
the League for the Protection of
Prosecuted Workers, defense or
ganization for workers. Mella Wis
tied the Soviet Union during the
celebrations of the 10th anniversary
of the Bolshevik Revolution. Mella's
assassination by the Cuban govern
ment's agents is part of the terror
ism carried on by the American
controlled Machado dictatorship
against revolutionary workers, par
ticularly Communists.
At the time Mella was shot. the
Cuban, Machado, U. S. imperiaiist
government, thru its Mexican con-
sui, had suit in the Mexican courts
for his deportation to Cuba, and
death there. They evidently decided
that Mella was toe dangerous to i'm
perialist interests to wait for the
process of the courts, and resorted
to direct assassination instead.
About six months ago a meeting
of workers in Harlem to protest de-
portations of Barcelona and other
Cuban workers from Cuba, was
broken up by Tammany police, who
came down at the request of the
Cuban counsel in New York, and
with Representatives of the Cuban
consulate accompanying them.
Just before news of the assassina-
ton of Mella reached here, Luis
Vampa, Spani-h worker very ac-
tive in anti-imperialist work in. New
York, received letter from him re-
questing information about active
Spanish workers who had dis
appeared. The letter is of great in
terest because it shows the constant
possibility of workers 'disliked by
the Yankee puppets in Cuba, of sud-
denly meeting of their death. The
letter says in part:
81 would like to know if leonardo
Fernandez Sanchos who, as per the
Daily Worker, left for Mexico City
where he has not yet arrived--is in
that city or has been assassinated
by Machado."
Sanchos cannot be located any
where.
Immediately upon receipt of the
news of the latest outrage OF Wall
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