Letter to Colonel Sanchez Salazar, May 31, 1940

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Sir:

Simultaneously with the protest I am sending to President Lazaro Cardenas, I find myself obliged to draw to your attention the following circumstances:

1. The [May 24] attack is not an unexpected accident which can be attributed to God, to Diego Rivera, etc. The incident is not the first of its kind; facing the prospect of an inevitable attack by the GPU, I had taken every precaution. Now that the attack is an accomplished fact, it is my friends and defenders who are apprehended, and suspicion lights on my former friends rather than on my true enemies, who are well known to all.

2. I know nothing of Mr. Rivera’s chauffeur. But the attempt to ascribe a role in the conspiracy to the great artist himself is an utterly absurd fantasy.

3. That attempt accords surprisingly well with the effort of the attackers themselves by shouting “Viva Almazan!” to give the impression that the attack was an incident of domestic politics. Rivera, as can be read in the press, was involved with the campaign of General Almazan. The classic rule of the GPU is to kill an enemy and throw the blame on someone else.

4. I have nothing in common with Diego Rivera’s political activities. We broke off our personal relations fifteen months ago. For over a year I have had no dealings whatever with him, either directly or indirectly, that could provide so much as a superficial pretext for the monstrous fabrication making Rivera responsible for an act undoubtedly committed at the instigation of the GPU and covered up politically by the hateful campaign of Messrs. Toledano, Laborde, Encinas, Salgado, and others.

5. One of today’s newspapers has printed the following: “There later arose personal differences between Trotsky and Diego Rivera. There was the further circumstance that the artist also had certain words with his wife, Mrs. Frida Kahlo, which culminated in divorce. Trotsky moved out of his friend’s house and into the villa where he now lives.”

These disgraceful lines, which I am sure were written by some corrupt reporter, entirely disregard the official sources of information. My differences with Rivera were of a political, theoretical, and artistic character and were aggravated by his impulsive temperament. All the correspondence concerning the breach of relations between us is available for inquiry, if a serious inquiry is also made into this matter, which has nothing to do with the attack by the GPU.

My family left Rivera’s home thirteen months ago. We learned of his divorce through the press only five or six months ago. It is with indignation and revulsion that I reject these insinuations, which have nothing to do with the attack by the GPU under the moral protection of Messrs. Lombardo Toledano, and others.

6. I am absolutely sure that the apprehension of my collaborators and friends is based on facts of the same kind as those concerning Diego Rivera. I am certain that the investigation is proceeding into a dead-end street. With each new day, with each new fact, with each serious new clue that arises, all of these artificial fabrications are fading and the true criminals are being unmasked, together with their instigators and intellectual protectors.

7. Until now I have been moved to absolute silence by the wish not to interfere with the investigation. But in view of the unexpectedly false turn it is taking, I reserve the absolute right to appeal to Mexican or international public opinion in this matter.

Yours truly,

Leon Trotsky