Vittorio Vidali Vittorio Vidali ( 1900 – 1983 ) , also known as " Vittorio Vidale " , " Enea Sormenti " , " Jacobo Hurwitz Zender " , " Carlos Contreras " , " " Comandante Carlos " " ) was an Italian - born Stalinist . Early life . He was born in the small coastal town of Muggia , then part of the county of Istria in the Austro - Hungarian Empire . Already as a teenager , he joined the socialist movement in the nearby port city of Trieste . Vidali is said to have been , aged only twenty , one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party , but was expelled from the country after Benito Mussolini ascended to power in 1922 . He is described as a Bolshevik in the file kept on him by the police in Fascist Italy . Comintern agent . After Italy , Vidali relocated to Moscow , where he was enlisted into the NKVD . While in the Soviet Union , he was officially rebuked for indulging in love affairs ( Cacucci , 1999 ) . With Socorro Rojo Internacional as his cover , Vidali was sent by the Comintern to Mexico to discipline the Mexican Communist Party . His time there brought Vidali ' s romantic involvement with communist photographer Tina Modotti , who had previously been Diego Rivera ' s friend . The Murder of Julio Mella . Vidali ’ s interest in Modotti is believed to be related to the killing of her then current lover , Cuban communist Julio Antonio Mella , a founder of the Comintern version of the Communist Party of Cuba ( Tennant , 1999 ) . Mella had fled Cuba in Gerardo Machado ’ s time , to join and then leave the Mexican Communist Party . The famous operative is immortalized in Diego Rivera ' s mural " In the Arsenal " . The extreme right [ as you face it ] of the mural shows Tina Modotti holding a belt of ammunition . Vidali ' s face , partly hidden , stares suspiciously from under a black hat , as he peers over her shoulder , while Modotti gazes lovingly at Julio Antonio Mella ( shown with light colored hat ) . Given the closeness of Diego Rivera to the people involved , and the fact that the painting is said to slightly predate the murder , some consider it to be evidence of Vidali ' s and Rivera ' s involvement in Mella ' s assassination , also related to Rivera ' s subsequent expulsion from the Mexican Communist Party . Vidali is believed to have used the revolver he commonly carried to murder Mella , rather than the M1911 pistol that Modotti kept in her house . The assassination took place in Mexico City on January 10 , 1929 , one month after Mella was expelled from the Mexican Communist Party for association with Trotskyists . Mella had rejoined the party just two weeks prior to his death , although this circumstance - like much else related to Vidali - is murky . Modotti was by Mella ' s side as he was shot , and was holding his arm in a manner which may be likened to their pose in Rivera ' s mural . Vidali ' s rivalry for Tina Modotti ' s affections may have been partial motive for the murder . The Mella assassination illustrates the complexity of the issues , and demonstrates Vidali and his superiors ' skills at obfuscation and covering tracks . Officially , José Agustín López ( said to have no particular political affiliations ) was charged with Mella ’ s murder , but two other known criminals , Jose Magriñat and Antonio Sanabria , were also suspected . The police investigators were given conflicting eyewitness reports . In one version , Mella and Modotti were walking alone , whereas another stated that Vidali was walking together with the two . Since Mella ' s wounds were from point - blank range , neither Modotti nor Vidali were injured , and , as Modotti had given a false name to the investigators , the police were suspicious of her alibi - she was arrested , but released soon after . Magriñat , himself in custody , was also set free : apparently a loose end , he was ultimately killed in Cuba ( allegedly by communists ) in 1933 ( Albers , 2002 ) . The official position of the present Cuban government is still that Mella was killed on Machado ' s orders , but it too admits that Tina Modotti was a Stalinist operative in a number of countries . Yet even in Cuba there are those who seem to believe that Vidali was responsible . How Machado ’ s men could have operated alone and independently in the highly politicized environment of Mexico City is not explained . Adding to the mystery , according to Abers ( 2002 ) , both Magriñat and Rivera ( who had just returned from Cuba ) would have warned Mella that he was in danger . . The Spanish Civil War . After Mexico , Vidali and Modotti left for Spain during the Spanish Civil War , where Vidali headed the anti - Trotskyist faction of the International Brigades known as the 5th Regiment ( Quinto Regimiento ) . He is known to have participated in the assassinations of many suspected anti - Stalinists , in collaboration with GPU agent Iosif Romualdovich Grigulevich . In Republican Spain , many of the " accidental deaths " of fellow Republicans , especially those of the Workers ' Party of Marxist Unification and probably the " disappearance " of their leader Andreu Nin were said to have been carried out under his direction . As a result , Vidali was greatly feared . Vidali , identified as " Carlos Contreras , one of the first Commanders of the [ Communist ] 5th Regiment [ of the Republican Militia ] " was shown addressing an assembly of military personnel in the 1937 pro - Republican propaganda film The Spanish Earth . In Mexico and Italy . Back in Mexico , Vidali was definitely involved in the May 24 , 1940 failed frontal assault on Trotsky ' s residence in Mexico City , along with Grigulevich and Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros . Vidali is thought to have been involved with the insertion of assassin Ramón Mercader into Trotsky ' s inner circle - Mercader was to kill Trotsky later that year . Vittorio Vidali returned to Trieste in 1947 , when the Free Territory of Trieste was established . He soon became one of the most influential members of the Communist Party of the Free Territory of Trieste . In 1948 , after the Tito - Stalin split , he became the leader of the party and carried out the de - Titoisation of Trieste ' s Communist organizations . He also got rid of the influence on the Communist Party of the Free Territory of Trieste , establishing strong links with the Italian Communists . During this period , he also clashed with the local Slovene minority that had been influential among Trieste ' s Communist before his arrival . After 1954 , when Trieste became part of Italy again , Vidali served as a member of Italian Parliament . Image . The circumstances relating to Vittorio Vidali , Ramón Mercader and the other agents ( Trotsky ' s murder , the lethal purges of agents in the Soviet Union and Fulgencio Batista ' s Cuba ( such as Sandalio Junco , ) , as well as Vidali ' s travels through Cuba before and after Fidel Castro ' s coming to power , and his presence in Turkey , Mexico , Spain , have drawn comparison with a James Bond story . Tina Modotti is said to have told Valentín González in Spain , after he had decided not to kill Vidali , words to the effect : " " You should have shot him , I hate him " " . Yet she continued : " " I have to follow him until I die " " ( which she in fact did ) .