Tocca a Milanthis year, host the National Day of Remembrance and Commitment in remembrance of innocent victims of the mafiasorganized byFree association, in its twenty-eighth edition. Milan because they passed tthirty years thirty years have passed since the massacre in via Palestro (near the Contemporary Art Pavilion) which caused the death of five people, and by the largest investigation into political corruption, i.e. Clean Hands. In Milan because ten years have passed since the funeral of Leah Garofalo, who moved to the Lombard capital to raise her daughter as a free woman. In Milan because the mafias are widespread nationally and internationally, above all where the economy is thriving and the richest and most numerous opportunities for enrichment.
The Day in Remembrance of the Victims of the Mafia 2023 is in Milan
There will be a procession in Milan, starting at 9 from Corso Venezia to arrive in Piazza Duomo. Here at 11, before the final speech by Don Luigi Ciotti, it will begin the reading of names of the innocent victims of the mafias. Ordinary citizens, magistrates, journalists, members of the police forces, priests, entrepreneurs, trade unionists, political exponents and local administrators who died at the hands of the mafias: Libera has been curating this very long list for over 27 years.
And from 1861 to today there are 1069 names that are part of it. Stories that punctuate the entire history of Italy, from the Unification until last year, when on the outskirts of Naples he fell victim to a Camorra ambush Antimo Emperor56 years old from Ponticelli, a “handyman” worker, killed because he was next to the target of the ambush.
Victims of the mafias also the migrants who died in Cutro
But «In Milan we will also read the names of the last ones migrants who died in Cutro», said Luigi Ciotti“because we believe that behind those deaths there are games of interests and strong powers, in an ever wider criminal dimension”.
“Vivi”, the portal that collects and tells the stories of the 1069 victims
whyis the “right to the name” means try to save the dead at least from oblivion, without falling into the trap of rhetoric typical of many celebrations. In this regard, March 21, 2023 is particularly special: it was born “You live”, “a multimedia archive, open and accessible to all, where all the stories of the over 1000 innocent victims of the mafia are collected. With lots of testimonials, memories, anecdotes. A place of memory in which to discover the faces, stories and dreams of innocent victims of the mafia. “Where to listen to the words of family members to build a bridge with the new generations”.
During the day of March 21, 2023, many were also organized seminars and training sessions. Starting from the one dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of the massacres of 1992-1993 and to mafias in Lombardy and northern Italy: “from the infiltrations of the past decades, through colonization, to today’s presence”.
Women killed by the mafias
In mafia families, women are often victims of violence: objects of possession, without the possibility of self-determination and freedom. In total, there are 133 women victims of mafia violence. «Some are women affected by stray bulletsothers are victims of cross saleskilled for parental ties with mafia men, but completely extraneous to the affairs of the clan – underlines Libera -. Still others are women killed for opposing to the economic, political, social and cultural power of the mafias”. Public administrators, magistrates, policewomen, but also women from mafia backgrounds who are rebel against the “mafia culture”.
Lea Garofalo, rebel against the mafia, killed in Milan
Between them, Leah Garofalo. Witness of justice, he tried to build, for himself and for his daughter Denise, a new life, far from the ‘Ndrangheta life to which she was condemned, given the context of origin and her marriage to Carlo Cosco. In 2009 she was killed by her husband: she was murdered in an apartment in Piazza Prealpi, in Milan, to then be burned, on land in San Fruttuoso, in Monza, with 50 liters of acid. She was left to burn for almost three days, so that no trace would remain.
In 2012, Lea’s remains were found nearby Monza, thanks to the testimony of one of his captors. On that ground it will rise soon a center of law.
The civil and public funeral of Lea Garofalo it was celebrated only in 2013, in Milan, with the participation of hundreds of people and, from afar, of his daughter Denise, also a witness of justice and a key figure in the trial of the Mafia crime. Thanks to Libera, Lea rests at the Milan Cemetery, al Famedioamong deserving citizens.
The children killed by the mafias: the youngest was 50 days old
are, instead, 115 the names of children killed by the mafias. The smallest is Catherine Nencioni50 days, killed in the night between 26 and 27 May 1993, in Florence, from bombs in via dei Georgofilitogether with all his family and the young Dario Capolicchio.
Among the names included in the list in recent years, those of international victims are increasingly numerous. Like Derk Wiersum and Peter de Vries, killed in Amsterdam for having become a lawyer and trusted adviser to Nabil B., a key witness in the trial against Ridouan Taghi, boss of Moroccan-Dutch organized crime. In total, the international victims are 49.
Among these, especially young migrants from Africa and Eastern Europe, who died at the hands of illegal hiring in the Apulian countryside and the province of Caserta. But also magistrates, like Pierre Michel, activists like Luc Nkulula, and above all journalists.
There are 11 journalists killed at the hands of the mafia in different parts of the world: from Russia to Somalia, from Malta to Lebanon. Among them, 6 are women.
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