Salvatore Lima

Salvatore Achille Ettore "Salvo" Lima (Italian: [salvaˈtoːre ˈliːma]; 23 January 1928 – 12 March 1992) was an Italian politician from Sicily who was associated with, and murdered by, the Sicilian Mafia (Cosa Nostra). According to the pentito (Mafia defector) Tommaso Buscetta, Lima's father Vincenzo was a member of the Mafia, but it is not known whether Lima himself was a made member of Cosa Nostra. In the final report of the first Antimafia Commission (1963–1976), Lima was described as one of the pillars of Mafia power in Palermo. During his long career with Christian Democracy (DC) that began in the 1950s, Lima was first allied with the faction of Amintore Fanfani and after 1964 with the one of Giulio Andreotti, a seven-time prime minister and member of almost every post-war Italian government until the 1980s. That shift earned him a seat in the national parliament in 1968. Lima was often referred to as Andreotti's "proconsul" on Sicily. Under Andreotti, Lima once held a cabinet post. At the time of his death, he was a member of the European Parliament. Lima rarely spoke in public or campaigned during elections but usually managed to gain large support from seemingly nowhere when it came to voting day. He was assassinated in 1992 by the Sicilian Mafia.