Editing David Alfaro Siqueiros (section)

==Attempted assassination of Leon Trotsky==
Before the mural's completion in 1940, however, Siqueiros was forced into hiding and later exiled for his direct involvement in an attempt to assassinate [[Leon Trotsky]], then in exile in Mexico City from the Soviet Union:{{sfn|Stein|1994|p=}}

President [[Lázaro Cárdenas]] had given Leon Trotsky and his wife, Natalia Sedova, political asylum after fleeing Stalinist persecution. They were able to enter the country thanks to the request that Ana Brenner made to Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to intervene on their behalf. Trotsky's arrival in Mexico as a political asylee infuriated the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Spanish Republicans]], allies of the Soviet Union, who complained to the Mexican fighters--among them Siqueiros--about their government's decision to accept Trotsky.<ref name="Cabrera Nuñez">{{cite book |last1=Cabrera Nuñez |first1=Eduardo César |last2=Valentina de Santiago Lázaro |first2=María |title=Siqueiros. Cronología biográfica. |date=2007 |publisher=Ayuntamiento de Guanajuato}}</ref>

[[File:Siquieros-hostotipaquillo.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Siqueiros disguised as a farmer under the name of Macario Huízar in the [[Hostotipaquillo]] sierra, October 1940]]

{{blockquote|text=In the early morning of May 24, 1940, [Siqueiros] led an attack on [[Leon Trotsky Museum, Mexico City|Trotsky's house in Mexico City's Coyoacán suburb]]. The attacking party was composed of men who had served under Siqueiros in the Spanish Civil War and of miners from his union. After thoroughly raking the house with machine gun fire and explosives, the attackers withdrew in the belief that nobody could have survived the assault. They were mistaken. Trotsky was unhurt and lived till August, when he was killed with a pickaxe wielded by an assassin.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/309-the-artist-as-activist-david-alfaro-siqueiros-1896%E2%80%931974 |title=The artist as activist: David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974) |publisher=Mexconnect.com |access-date=11 November 2014}}</ref>}} Trotsky's 14-year-old grandson was shot, yet survived.<ref name=":1">{{cite news |last1=Mike Lanchin |title=Trotsky's grandson recalls ice pick killing |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19356256 |access-date=15 January 2019 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=28 August 2012 |language=en |quote=Volkov was hit in the foot}}</ref> Following the attack, police found a shallow grave<ref>{{cite journal |editor1-last=Ted Crawford |editor2-last=David Walters |title=The Murder of Robert Sheldon Harte |journal=Fourth International |date=May 1942 |volume=3 |issue=5 |pages=139–42 |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/fi/vol03/no05/rourke.htm |access-date=15 January 2019 |quote=a month later, on June 25th, Bob's lime-covered body was found in a shallow grave}}</ref> on the road to the Desierto de los Leones with the body of New York Communist [[Robert Sheldon Harte]], executed<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Index and Concordance to Alexander Vassiliev's Notebooks and Soviet Cables Deciphered by the National Security Agency's Venona Project |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Vassiliev-Notebooks-and-Venona-Index-Concordance_update-2014-11-01.pdf |website=Wilson Center |publisher=[[Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars]] |access-date=15 January 2019 |pages=175–76 |date=1 November 2014 |quote=Harte left alive with the raiders but was found dead a few days later. |archive-date=15 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115234354/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Vassiliev-Notebooks-and-Venona-Index-Concordance_update-2014-11-01.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> by one shot to the head. He had been one of Trotsky's bodyguards. The theory that Sheldon was a Soviet agent who had infiltrated Trotsky's entourage, aiding in Siqueiros' attack by allowing the hit squad to enter Trotsky's compound, was discounted by Trotsky and later historians.<ref>Robert Service. Trotsky: A Biography. Belknap Press. 2009. p. 485-488</ref> Siqueiros's colleague Josep Renau completed the SME mural, transforming the generator into a machine that converts the blood of workers into coins.

Siqueiros was located by the police in a property supposedly rented by Angelica and Luis Arenal (Siqueiros's wife and brother-in-law respectively) in the outskirts of the capital. Siqueiros fled to Guadalajara, hiding in the house of his old friend [[:es:José Guadalupe Zuno|José Guadalupe Zuno]] and from there he moved to the mountain town of [[Hostotipaquillo]]. Together with Angélia Arenal, he hid disguised as a peasant under the name of Macario Huízar. The Jalisco police apprehended Siqueiros and he was taken back Mexico City. He was formally processed and declared prisoner in the Lecumberri Preventive Prison. Siqueiros was charged for attempted homicide, criminal association, improper use of uniform, usurpation of functions, breaking and entering, firing a firearm and robbery.<ref name="Cabrera Nuñez" />

Despite Siqueiros's participation in these events, he never stood trial and was given permission to leave the country to paint a mural in Chile, arranged by Chilean poet [[Pablo Neruda]].  In a school library in the town of Chillán, he organized a team of artists to paint a mural which combined the heroic figures of Mexico and Chile in "Death to the Invader."

Hoping to revisit the United States and contribute to the struggle against fascism, he was denied entry and went to Cuba where he painted three murals, "Allegory of Racial Equality and Fraternity in Cuba," "New Day of the Democracies" and "Two Mountains of America, Marti and Lincoln."