Mexico City. Tina Modotti, a beautiful Hollywood actress and lover of Vittorio Vidali, is murdered on January 1, 1942. After a New Year’s Eve party, organized by Pablo Neruda and attended by several communist veterans of the Spanish Civil War, Tina takes a taxi home, where she is found dead a few minutes later. Neruda dedicates a poem to her: “Tina Modotti is dead.” Also at the party was Vittorio Vidali (aka Carlosa Contreras, aka Enea Sormenti), who disappears from circulation the following day. Vittorio Vidali is an agent of Red Aid, initially a communist solidarity organization, and later Stalin’s armed wing. He actively collaborated in finding and eliminating Trotskyist supporters around the world, including Trotsky himself in Mexico City in 1940.
