Deserted streets, locked shops and bars, a handful of passers-by on the street: Venice has armored itself as never before, preparing for the destructive follies of urban warfare.
The alarm was triggered after the announcement that anarchist groups, coming from various regions but also from abroad, intended to demonstrate in Campo Santa Margherita in support of Alfredo Cospito
, subjected to the 41 bis regime in hospital, but above all in view of the appeal process in which the 44-year-old Spaniard Juan Antonio Sorroche has been accused since 29 March in the Mestre bunker hall, sentenced in the first instance to 28 years for the attack in 2018 on K3 in Villorba, headquarters of the Treviso League.
Sorroche four years earlier, in 2014, had been accused of acts of terrorism with explosive devices for having also been the author of the attack on the Surveillance Court of Trento.
In reality, a few dozen anarchists opposed the 400 men of the police force who have garrisoned Venice since yesterday evening, some of whom demonstrated with banners and megaphones in the nearby Campo dei Frari
.
"Government band of criminals", "Fuori Alfredo dal 41bis" and "Stragista è lo Stato. Solidarietà con Anna e Alfredo" (with an allusion to Anna Beniamino, Cospito's former partner) were the phrases repeated by the group, of which they were part many boys.
Some moments of tension, in which agents in anti-riot gear and demonstrators had direct contact, occurred only in the final phase of the protest, while the procession was returning to Piazzale Roma.
About ten young people had previously been identified and accompanied to the headquarters of the Police Headquarters, upon arrival at the railway station.
In Campo Santa Margherita, a place indicated as the starting point of the unauthorized protest, in reality nothing disturbed the rarefied silence, unthinkable in a day of normal everyday life.
Venice had prepared well in advance for the possible destructive impact of the demonstrators on the extremely fragile structure of the city.
The Ponte della Libertà, the only access route to the lagoon capital from the mainland, had been armored with checkpoints since yesterday evening to control arrivals.
Also acting as a deterrent was the ordinance of the mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro which removed the stalls of the premises from the morning and prohibited the sale of drinks in cans or glass,
as well as having the rubbish bins and stalls temporarily removed.
While the lagoon city was facing the fear of a possible guerrilla war, the police carried out some searches in Ravenna in relation to at least a dozen handwritten leaflets found pasted on the walls of the city center last February 24 in favor of Cospito's liberation from 41bis.
T
ANSA agency
Cospito: for the general prosecutor of Milan 'remain at 41 bis in the hospital' - Chronicle
Negative opinion at house arrest. The judges, who have 5 days to file the order, will have to assess whether or not his state of health is compatible with detention (ANSA)
Anarchists, procession in Venice against the 41 bis
