Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on Thursday pledged a "national effort" to fight organized crime in Naples, which is reeling from a wave of murders.
"Legality and the application of the law is the government's main objective. An effort by the entire country and all its institutions is necessary," he said, while ruling out the use of the army or emergency legislation.
"For now it is not necessary to send the army," Prodi said after meeting with local security officials.
The Naples area, which has recorded 12 murders in 10 days, is not in a "particular state of emergency," he told a news conference.
"If legality does not triumph, Naples will remain immobilized. We must help it emerge from the tunnel," Prodi said. "And we have the moral and operational capacity to achieve it."
Prodi said Interior Minister Giuliano Amato would unveil a detailed plan and "operational modalities" during a visit to the southern city on Friday.
"Crime is a major obstacle to economic development in the south of the country," he noted.
The prime minister also proposed working with youths in schools to lower the dropout rate and building more social centers.
Yet another bloody incident occurred early on Thursday, when a 34-year-old man was attacked in the old city of Naples, according to the ANSA news agency, which said he was in serious condition in hospital.
"No one understands what is happening, why things degenerated so fast," said Tonia Valvano, a vendor selling paintings in a Naples shopping street following the spate of killings, many apparently linked to Naples' Comorra Mafia.
"I've been in Naples for 40 years and have never seen such a tense situation. I don't feel at ease when I'm out," she told reporters.
The government has already said it will send at least 1,000 police reinforcements from next Friday to bolster the 13,000-strong security force in the southern city, but has so far ruled out sending soldiers.
A shopkeeper, Emma, said angrily: "You'd think it's all right by them [the government] that there's the Mafia and chaos. The north of Italy has always trampled on the south, so why would that change?"
Southern Italy is poorer than the rest of the country and has been plagued by crime syndicates for nearly 200 years.
Unemployment in Naples was around 17 percent lat year, compared with a national rate of 7.7 percent. Among 15 to 24-year-olds, it was 40 percent in the Naples area and 24 percent nationally, according to official figures.
Fabio Piscini, a 26-year-old taxi driver, faulted a recent amnesty law, which he called "a huge mistake."
Under the law, 1,321 people were released from Naples prisons over the past few months. Another 1,392 were released from other prisons in the surrounding Campania region.
Two of those murdered in the latest crime wave had been freed under the amnesty, a fact pointed out by the anti-Camorra chief prosecutor Franco Roberti.
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is leaning into his banking background as his country fights a trade war with the US, but his financial ties have also made him a target for conspiracy theories. Incorporating tropes familiar to followers of the far-right QAnon movement, conspiratorial social media posts about the Liberal leader have surged ahead of the country’s April 28 election. Posts range from false claims he recited a “satanic chant” at a campaign event to artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images of him in a pool with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “He’s the ideal person to be targeted here, for sure, due to
DISPUTE: Beijing seeks global support against Trump’s tariffs, but many governments remain hesitant to align, including India, ASEAN countries and Australia China is reaching out to other nations as the US layers on more tariffs, in what appears to be an attempt by Beijing to form a united front to compel Washington to retreat. Days into the effort, it is meeting only partial success from countries unwilling to ally with the main target of US President Donald Trump’s trade war. Facing the cratering of global markets, Trump on Wednesday backed off his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, saying countries were lining up to negotiate more favorable conditions. China has refused to seek talks, saying the US was insincere and that it
RSS