Vittorio Vidali (27 September 1900 – 9 November 1983), also known as Vittorio Vidale, Enea Sormenti, Jacobo Hurwitz Zender, Carlos Contreras, and "Comandante Carlos", was an Italian communist. After being expelled from Italy with the rise of Fascist Benito Mussolini, he went to Moscow, where he became an operative for the Soviet Comintern. He was exiled to Mexico, where he was implicated in assassination attempts of Cuban communist Julio Mella and Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Later Vidali was active in other locations, finally leading the new communist part in the Free Territory of Trieste beginning in 1947 after World War II. He later represented the community in Parliament after it was annexed by Italy. Early life He was born in the small coastal town of Muggia, then part of the county of Istria in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and now part of Italy. As a teenager, he joined the socialist movement in the nearby port city of Trieste. At the age of twenty, Vidali is said to have been one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party. In 1922, he was expelled from the country after Benito Mussolini ascended to power with the Fascist movement. Vidali was described as a Bolshevik in the file kept on him by the police in Fascist Italy. Comintern agent Vidali found refuge in the Soviet Union, relocating to Moscow. Working for the International Red Aid, Vidali was sent by the Comintern to Mexico to discipline its national party, according the Mexican Communist Party. During this period, Vidali became romantically involved with photographer and communist activist Tina Modotti, who had a previous liaison with artist Diego Rivera and was then involved with Cuban communist Julio Antonio Mella, then in Mexico. Murder of Julio Mella According to Tennant, Vidali's interest in Modotti was related to his killing her current lover, Mella. Mella was among the founders of the Comintern version of the Communist Party of Cuba (Tennant, 1999). Mella had fled Cuba for Mexico in Gerardo Machado’s time, where he joined and then left the Mexican Communist Party. Diego Rivera portrayed Vidali, Modotti, and Mella in his mural In the Arsenal. He included the figure of Tina Modotti holding a belt of ammunition on the right side of the mural. Vidali is shown staring over her shoulder and wearing a black hat. Modotti gazes lovingly at Julio Antonio Mella (shown with a light colored hat). Given