Ramón Mercader

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Mercader and the second or maternal family name is del Río.
Ramón Mercader
Mercader in the 1970s
Born
Jaume Ramón Mercader del Río

(1913-02-07)7 February 1913
Argentona, Catalonia, Spain
Died18 October 1978(1978-10-18) (aged 65)
Havana, Cuba
Resting placeKuntsevo Cemetery, Moscow, Russia
Other names
  • Jacques Mornard
  • Frank Jacson
  • Ramón Ivánovich López
  • Leon Jacome
  • Leon Haikys (not to be confused with Leon Gaikis)
Occupations
  • Waiter
  • militiaman
  • soldier
  • secret agent of the NKVD
Criminal statusDeceased
SpouseRoquelia Mendoza Buenabad
Children3
Parents
  • Pau Mercader Marina (father)
  • Caridad del Río Hernández (mother)
RelativesMaría Mercader (cousin)
ConvictionMurder
Criminal penalty20 years imprisonment

Jaume Ramón Mercader del Río (Catalan pronunciation: [rəˈmom məɾkəˈðe]; 7 February 1913 – 18 October 1978)[1] was a Spanish communist and NKVD secret agent who assassinated the revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico City in August 1940. Mercader was imprisoned for 19 years and 8 months in Mexico for murdering Trotsky with an ice axe.[2]

In 1960, after release from Mexican imprisonment, Mercader was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal and the Order of Lenin medal, and lived at different times in Cuba, the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia.

  1. ^ Photograph of Mercader's Gravestone
  2. ^ "The New Trotsky: No Longer a Devil" by Craig R. Whitney, The New York Times, 16 January 1989.
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