Julio Mella was a Cuban communist activist who co-founded the Cuban Communist Party in 1925. On this day in 1929, Mella was assassinated by an unknown assailant while walking home with revolutionary photographer Tina Modotti.

Born in Havana in 1903, Mella developed an interest in politics as a young adult, first getting arrested during the government of Alfredo Zayas (1921 - 1924). Mella had studied law in the University of Havana, but was expelled in 1925.

Although Cuba already had various anti-capitalist parties, Julio Mella helped found the "international" Cuban Communist Party, recognized by the Soviet Union in 1925, during the Machado regime.

At the time of his murder, Mella was working as a Marxist revolutionary in Mexico, collaborating with other exiles and supporters to organize the overthrow of General Gerardo Machado in Cuba.

Mella was assassinated on January 10th, 1929, while walking home at night with revolutionary photographer Tina Modotti. It is unknown who killed Mella, as both Machado and the Cuban Communist Party, which was afraid Mella had come under the influence of Trotsky (who lived in Mexico at the time), had cause to assassinate him.

The Cuban government's official position is that Machado had Mella assassinated, while also acknowledging that Modotti was a Stalin-aligned agent. On September 29th, 1933 the troops of Fulgencio Batista, less than a month in power, broke up a procession to bury his ashes in Havana, shooting as many as six people.