Italian Marchers Protest Mafia
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GELA, Sicily — Thousands of people took to the streets in anti-Mafia protests on Friday as this city of 80,000 buried a merchant who was slain for defying mob demands for protection money. Schools were closed and shop owners briefly shut their businesses in tribute.
Gunmen killed Gaetano Giordano, who owned a cosmetics shop, and injured his son, Massimo, on Tuesday.
“Gaetano Giordano is a strong voice who cries out in the sad history we are living, and who reaches our consciences,” Bishop Vincenzo Cirrincione said. Massimo Giordano attended the service in a wheelchair.
Young people have increasingly spoken out against the underworld since feuding Mafia clans in Gela, on Sicily’s south coast, began a murderous war several years ago. About 3,000 youngsters marched Thursday in the city. In Foggia, in the southern Puglia region, about 10,000 people marched in protest.
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