Quem namorou Caridad Mercader?

Eustacia María Caridad del Río Hernández (29 March 1892 – 1975), better known as Caridad del Río, Caridad Mercader or Caritat Mercader, was a Spanish communist militant and an agent of the Soviet NKVD. She is also known for being the mother of Ramón Mercader, the assassin of Leon Trotsky, and for having personally participated in the operation.

Caridad Mercader belonged to a wealthy family from Barcelona of Indiano origin (term applied to a Spaniard who emigrated to the Americas who later returned to Spain enriched) in the early 20th century. She married Pablo Mercader, a member of Barcelona's industrial upper class, from whom she took the name (Spanish women do not normally take their husbands' surnames), and with whom she had five children. After the end of her marriage to Pablo Mercader, she moved away from her family and permanently turned her back on the social class they represented. This decision was motivated in part by an episode of forced institutionalization during which she was subjected to electroshock therapy and her former husband's attempts to change her state of "sexual apathy" through visits to local brothels. Mercader began to frequent anarchist circles and soon embraced communist ideology. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, she participated in the fights against the military uprising in Barcelona and joined the groups that left for Aragon, where she suffered severe injuries during an aerial attack.

Mercader achieved some notoriety as a member of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC). In 1936 she led a propaganda mission to Mexico and later became an agent of the NKVD in Spain. Her son Ramón, also a member of the PSUC and an officer in the Spanish Republican Army, was also recruited by Soviet espionage during the war, likely with the involvement of his mother. Under orders from Josef Stalin, as part of Operation Utka (Operation Duck), Ramon Mercader was enlisted and trained to assassinate Leon Trotsky, who was in exile in Mexico. Caridad, who had settled in Paris some time in 1937, also participated in the operation. When Ramón was arrested after murdering Trotsky, Caridad managed to leave Mexico and escape to the Soviet Union, where she was received with honors, awarded the Order of Lenin. The Hero of the Soviet Union was reserved for Ramon upon his release from a Mexican prison. In the Soviet Union, Caridad actively participated in conflicts between the different factions of exiled Spanish communists, including with Dolores Ibárruri, La Pasionaria.

Caridad found conditions in the Soviet Union disappointing and never adapted to life there. She bitterly told her son Luis and confidante Enrique Castro Delgado that they had fought for "Utopia" but were living in "Hell". She expressed that she felt deluded and that she had turned her son Ramon into a murderer, her son Luis into a hostage, and her other two children into ruins. She felt their only recompense had been "cuatro porquerias" (four pieces of trash), referring to the medals. In 1944, with some difficulty, Caridad obtained a permit to leave the Soviet Union. Violating the agreed conditions that she settle in Cuba, she traveled to Mexico, with the aim of achieving the release of her son Ramón. Unknown to Caridad, at Stalin's direction, the Soviets were running an undercover operation to stage the prison escape of Ramón Mercader. The awkward intervention of Caridad Mercader was counterproductive, causing the Mexican authorities to toughen Ramón's prison conditions and the Soviets to abandon their operation. Ramón was left in prison to serve out the remaining 16 years of his 20-year sentence. Ramón, who according to his brother Luis never shared his mother's passion for the communist cause, blamed his mother for botching his release and never forgave her interference.

After the failure of Operation Utka, Caridad settled in Paris, where her daughter Montserrat and son Jorge lived with their families, enjoying a Soviet pension. Disillusioned with communist reality, she nevertheless stubbornly continued to be a communist, worshiping Stalin and believing in his doctrine. She occasionally traveled to the Soviet Union to visit her sons, Luis, as well as Ramón, who had settled there after serving his sentence in Mexico. Caridad Mercader died in the French capital in 1975. The Soviet embassy in Paris took care of the funeral and burial.

Louis Delrieu​ o Louis Exupère Origène Delrieu​ (Lavardac, 14 de marzo de 1889 - Audenge, 5 de febrero de 1976)​ fue un piloto de aviación militar francés durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y pionero aeropostal al finalizar el conflicto bélico, nombrado Oficial y Caballero de la Legión de Honor.

De profesión profesor en Pouillon​ fue reclutado durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y enviado al norte de África, de 1913 a 1914.​​ Designado como Observador aeronáutico militar y de vuelta a Francia, consiguió el título de piloto militar de aviones en la Ecole d'aviation militaire de Avord en 1915 y el de la Federación Aeronáutica Internacional el mismo año.​​ De nuevo en el frente, fue enviado al ejército francés oriental donde, primero como teniente de escuadrilla y después como comandante, fue distinguido por sus tareas de reconocimiento, protección y valentía durante las misiones; en particular, por el mérito conseguido en el Reino de Serbia. Se le otorgaron dos​ Croix de Guerre, la Orden del águila Blanca de Serbia y se lo nombró Caballero de la Legión de Honor.​

«Jeune pilote débutant à l'escadrille N-87, à Salonique, il y avait déjà quelque temps que je m'étais proposé comme volontaire pour déposer un agent spécial derrière les lignes bulgares [...]
L'homme se redressa, claqua les talons et ajouta quelques mots, visiblement très durs.
"Que dit-il ? Il dit que lui, il n'attend ni galons ni décoration; c'est pour la Grande Serbie".
Que répondre à de tels propos? Je lui tendis la main, et jamais je n'ai connu une pareille poignée de mains, de celles qui vous font non seulement amis, mais encore des complices, qui pourront compter l'un sur l'autre, quoi qu'il advienne.»

Louis Delrieu.​

Ya finalizada la guerra, Delrieu fue contratado en 1919 por la compañía aérea Lignes Aériennes Latécoère,​ empresa pionera en mundo del correo postal y que recién acababa de inaugurar el trayecto de Toulouse a Casablanca haciendo escala en Barcelona-El Prat de Llobregat, Alicante-Sant Vicent del Raspeig y Málaga,​ de la cual se convirtió en piloto regular.

Fue uno de los mejores pilotos de la compañía; así, en 1921 fue enviado a África a hacer un reconocimiento ante la posibilidad de expandirse hacia el Senegal y en 1923 participó en los primeros vuelos postales entre Casablanca y Dakar.​​ En 1924, fue el primer piloto que hizo un reconocimiento aeronáutico de las Islas Canarias en el marco de gestiones para valorar el enlace con las islas en la ruta con Dakar.​ Voló de Fuerteventura a Gran Canaria y, en un vuelo de ensayo entre Las Palmas de Gran Canaria y Santa Cruz de Tenerife, efectuó el primer envío aéreo de una carta entre las islas.​

Abandonó el trabajo en la compañía Latécoère en 1925. Pasó un tiempo de nuevo en el servicio militar aéreo, donde ejerció de comandante en Ajaccio y en Nantes, posteriormente fue director del centro aéreo de Clermont-Aulnat.​ Fue nombrado Oficial de la Legión de Honor​ y abandonó la carrera militar. Murió en la Gironda, y a su funeral asistieron otros pioneros del correo postal y antiguos compañeros como Gaston Vedel.​