Via Palestro: a Milano commemoration and initiatives for the thirtieth anniversary of the attack of 27 July 1993

Via Palestro: a Milano commemoration and initiatives for the thirtieth anniversary of the attack of 27 July 1993.

30 years have passed since July 27, 1993 when, shortly after 23pm, a Milano, in via Palestro, near the Contemporary Art Pavilion (PAC), the explosion of a bomb hidden in a stolen Fiat Uno caused the death of 5 people and extensive damage to buildings including the Gallery of Modern Art, the Villa Reale and the Pavilion in front of which the car bomb had been parked.

That night at Milano firefighters died Carlo La Catena, Sergio Pasotto e Stefano Picerno, who rushed to the scene shortly before the explosion, the local police officer Angelo ferrari who, seeing the smoke coming out of the car, had asked for the intervention of 112 and a citizen of Morocco, Moussafir Driss, homeless, hit to death by a sheet of metal while sleeping on a bench. To them, victims of mafia terrorism, the whole city of Milano will pay tribute on Thursday 27 July in a commemorative day that will last until midnight.

At 9.30 the Mayor of Milano Beppe Sala and the other civil and military authorities will be in via Palestro 14, in front of the PAC, where ten years ago a plaque was placed in memory of the victims, for the laying of wreaths and institutional interventions. Thirty years after the attack, the perpetrators were convicted and imprisoned, but this will be the first year after the arrest of the last of the instigators: Matteo Messina Denaro, captured last January after decades on the run and now in prison.

"Each of us - commented Mayor Sala - he retains his memory of that night and of the days that followed the explosion of the car bomb in via Palestro. Milano it had already experienced terrorist attacks and this, which was soon declared to be of mafia origin, shook the entire city again. We reacted by rebuilding what was destroyed and opposing the attack carried out by Cosa Nostra with the strong and firm voice of a city that did not intend to bow to mafia action. Milano – continued Sala – has always claimed and fought for legality in its institutions, in its activities, in its mentality, sowing and growing the culture of clean and honest action, looking to the example of many who died killed by the mafia for this reason, true heroes of the our time. Now, 30 years after that night, we will remember the victims and what happened, aware that the fight against the mafia is unfortunately not over and must be carried out by everyone every day in every area".