Leon
Trotsky: Representative Toledano Hurls a New Slander
June
2, 1940
[Writings
of Leon Trotsky, Vol 12, 1939-1940, New York ²1973, p. 232]
Yes,
I have publicly called the theory of "self-assault" stupid
and fantastic. A brother of Mr. Lombardo Toledano states, in respect
to this, that I have insulted the police, and in particular General
Nunez, from whom I can say that in the past I have encountered only
help and attention.
The
statement of this representative is a crude falsification. Neither
the police in general, nor their chief in particular, have raised the
hypothesis of "self-assault" in any context Such a theory,
or more precisely, a general assertion of this type, was expressed by
the publications whose mission is to defend;, cover up for, and
justify the crimes of Stalin and his GPU. Some police officials have
felt it their duty to investigate
this
assertion. But the police's duty to investigate all
the variants does not deprive me of the right to characterize the
assertion of Lombardo Toledano and his friends, who compete with the
Communist Party In their slander, as absurd and fantastic. … Or
perhaps the honorable representative requires that I myself should
consider the hypothesis of my having mobilized twenty armed men,
captured the police, kidnapped one of the members of my guard, set
fire to my own house, attacked myself and my wife, and wounded my
grandson — and all this for purposes that no one can explain in any
coherent way — that I should consider this hypothesis to be the
result of serious thought and proof of the fine juridical thinking of
Mr. Toledano and his friends.
During
my press conference, I stated in response to a direct question that
although I could not agree with the manner in which Col. Salazar
proceeded in regard to my collaborators, I had, nevertheless, not the
slightest doubt that the police would be directed in their
investigation solely by the desire to establish the truth.
The
objective of the new insinuation is twofold: (1) to stir up police
hostility against the victim of the aggression and thus to aid the
aggressors; (2) to cause, if possible, my expulsion from Mexico; that
is to say, my transfer into the hands of the GPU.
Permit
me to add one thing: if one followed back the trail of the different
rumors and false denunciations placed In circulation by mysterious
and semi-mysterious sources, they would lead us much nearer to the
high command of the aggressors.