Ramón Mercader (Jaime Ramón Mercader del Río, 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. For murdering the exiled Russian Communist with an ice axe, Mercader was imprisoned for 19 years and 8 months in Mexico.