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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. IV No. 22, 1 June 1940, pp. 1 & 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
MEXICO CITY, May 27 – Mexican police are seeking George Mink, agent of Stalin’s G.P.U. (secret police), as the chief of the G.P.U. murder squad which attempted to assassinate Leon Trotsky and his wife last Friday, it was reported today by all press services.
Chief of Police General Jose Manuel Nun, who personally took charge of the investigation, had previously stated that the attack was undoubtedly organized by the Russian secret police.
The attempted assassination came on the heels of the recent purge of the Mexican Communist Party and a conference simultaneously held in Mexico City of GPU agents. Planned down to the last detail on a scale possible only to people commanding enormous resources, it was clearly the result of long preparation under direct orders of Stalin himself.
More than twenty Stalinist assassins disguised in police uniforms and armed with machine guns, rifles, and incendiary bombs, succeeded in, breaking inside the walls surrounding the residence of Leon Trotsky last Friday and sprayed fusillade after fusillade through the doors and windows of the bedroom where Comrade Trotsky and his wife were sleeping.
Robert Sheldon Harte, secretary-guard on duty at the outer door, was kidnapped. His fate is unknown but it is feared that he is dead.
Comrade Trotsky and his wife, Comrade Natalia, managed to save themselves from the assassins by rolling out of bed and huddling on the floor between the heavy stone walls. Comrade Trotsky escaped with slight cuts from flying glass. Comrade Natalia was unharmed.
The young grandson of Comrade Trotsky, whose adjoining room was likewise machine-gunned by the assassins succeeded in escaping with a wound on his foot from flying splinters.
The attack occurred at 4 A.M. The police on duty outside reported that they were surprised by the men in blue uniforms of the Mexican police who drove up in automobiles, held them at gun point and then tied them hand and foot. The assassins were headed by a man wearing the uniform of an army lieutenant. They carried extension ladders, rope ladders with grappling hooks, electric saws, and other tools which they later abandoned along with some of their unexploded bombs when they fled.
It is not yet clear how the band of assassins managed to penetrate inside the walls. Whether they succeeded in persuading the secretary-guard Harte to open the door through a clever ruse is not known. It is a rule of the household not to open the door at night. It is possible that they managed to scale the wall after first subduing the police on guard outside and from there killed Harte with an air gun which would not have awakened the other guards.
Once inside the walls, the gang separated, part of them placing themselves between Trotsky and the rest of the guards who were sleeping in their rooms, spraying the guards’ doors with frequent blasts of machine gun slugs.
The guards reported that one of the assassins called out to them in English to stay in their rooms and they would not be hurt. They returned the fire, however. Whether any of the assassins were struck by the return fire is not known. The invaders had cut all the wires except that of the telephone upon overpowering Harte, and in the darkness only the flame from their machine guns could be seen.
The main body of assassins proceeded to the combined library and study of Comrade Trotsky, firing machine gun slugs wildly as they broke inside. From that vantage point they held their machine guns on the bedroom door of Comrade Trotsky, riddling it with bullets. At the same time others of the gang shot through the French door of the bedroom which opens upon the patio, thus directing a cross fire upon the beds where Comrades Trotsky and Natalia had been sleeping but few minutes before. Their pillows were riddled. More than seventy bullet holes were counted in the wall near the beds. Others of the assassins fired into Sergei’s room at the same time.
Undoubtedly convinced that they had succeeded in their bloody assignment and fearing to break open the bedroom doors which are connected with a special mechanical protective device of which they apparently were aware, the assassins hurled incendiary bombs in the library and left with flames rapidly spreading among the books and magazines.
At the door through the wall, which also opens upon the garage, they stole two of the automobiles. They took Harte – perhaps already dead – with them.
Comrade Natalia rushed out of the bedroom and smothered the fire with blankets.
The alarm was flashed over the telephone by the remaining guards, and the Mexican authorities immediately responded with squads of police and secret service men.
Comrade Trotsky named George Mink as one of the GPU agents assigned to assassinate him and declared that the entire attempt was carried out on direct orders and under the personal supervision of Stalin, the Cain who has slaughtered the entire of the Bolsheviks who led the October revolution.
One of the automobiles was abandoned by the GPU assassins in Coyoacan, the other was found on a road ten miles west of Mexico City. In it was a coat from one of the police uniforms used by the gang.
The Mexican authorities have launched a thoroughgoing investigation. The five policemen detailed to guard the house under the supervision of J. Casas have been placed in custody for close questioning. The Mexican secret service is combing the country for suspects.
The attempted assassination created a sensation in Mexico. It was the most important story of the week. Every newspaper carried detailed accounts.
In expectation that another attempt will shortly be made – Stalin seems to believe that the headlines on the world war now raging will cover up the crime – the police guard has been reinforced at Coyoacan by the Mexican authorities. The internal guard system is likewise being greatly amplified and the entire interior within the walls completely rearranged and reinforced in preparation for the next attack.
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