Hernán Laborde

Hernán Laborde Rodríguez (18 November 1895 – 1 May 1955) was a Mexican communist politician.

He was born in Veracruz on 18 November 1895, the son of Francisco Laborde and Rosenda Rodríguez. Laborde joined the Mexican Communist Party (PCM) in 1925. He was part of the Alianza de los Ferrocarrileros Mexicanos since 1924, and during the railroad strikes that took place between 1926 and 1927 he was one of its leaders, but would be apprehended and imprisoned by orders of the Calles government. He was elected deputy in July 1928, a position he held until May 1929 when he was debarred. In 1929 he was elected Secretary General of the PCM, being its main leader until the beginning of 1940 when he was expelled from the party for refusing to participate in the I Extraordinary Congress of the PCM. In 1934 he was a candidate for the Presidency of Mexico for the PCM, obtaining only a few hundred votes.

Along with Valentín Campa, Laborde opposed the PCM conducting a smear campaign against Leon Trotsky after he had fled to Mexico. At the same time, both communist leaders questioned the "unity at all costs" policy imposed by the Communist International, which earned them removal from the leadership and expulsion from the PCM on orders from the International. He died on International Workers' Day in 1955.

He was a partner of the singer and activist Concha Michel, whom he met in the Mexican Communist Party. Provided by Wikipedia