Editing Mafia (section)

===Post-Fascist revival===
In 1943, nearly half a million [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Powers Allied] troops invaded Sicily. Crime soared in the upheaval and chaos. Many inmates escaped from their prisons, banditry returned and the black market thrived.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DickieCosaNostra_12-2">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Mafia#cite_note-DickieCosaNostra-12 [12]]</sup> During the first six months of Allied occupation, party politics in Sicily were banned.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DickieCosaNostra243_48-0">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Mafia#cite_note-DickieCosaNostra243-48 [48]]</sup> Most institutions, with the exception of the police and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carabinieri carabinieri],<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-49">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Mafia#cite_note-49 [49]]</sup> were destroyed, and the American occupiers had to build a new order from scratch. As Fascist mayors were deposed, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Military_Government_of_Occupied_Territories Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories] (AMGOT) simply appointed replacements. Many turned out to be mafiosi, such as [[Calogero Vizzini]] and [[Giuseppe Genco Russo]]. They could easily present themselves as political dissidents,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DickieCosaNostra240_52-0">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Mafia#cite_note-DickieCosaNostra240-52 [52]]</sup> and their [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-communist anti-communist] position gave them additional credibility. Mafia bosses reformed their clans, absorbing some of the marauding bandits into their ranks.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-53">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Mafia#cite_note-53 [53]]</sup>

The changing economic landscape of Sicily would shift the Mafia's power base from rural to the urban areas. The Minister of Agriculture – a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist communist] – pushed for reforms in which peasants were to get larger shares of produce, be allowed to form [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative cooperatives] and take over badly used land, and remove the system by which leaseholders (known as ''"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabelloto gabelloti]"'') could rent land from landowners for their own short-term use.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DickieCosaNostra245_54-0">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Mafia#cite_note-DickieCosaNostra245-54 [54]]</sup> Owners of especially large estates were to be forced to sell off some of their land. The Mafia, which had connections to many landowners, murdered many [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist socialist] reformers. The most notorious attack was the [[Portella della Ginestra massacre]], when 11 persons were killed and 33 wounded during [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day May Day] celebrations on May 1, 1947. The bloodbath was perpetrated by the bandit [[Salvatore Giuliano]] who was possibly backed by local Mafia bosses. In the end, though, they couldn't stop the process, and many landowners chose to sell their land to mafiosi, who offered more money than the government.

In the 1950s, a crackdown in the United States on [[Illegal Drug Trade|drug trafficking]] led to the imprisonment of many American mafiosi. Furthermore, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba Cuba], a major hub for drug smuggling, fell to [[Fidel Castro]]. This prompted the American mafia boss [[Joseph Bonanno]] to return to Sicily in 1957 to franchise out his [[Heroin|heroin]] operations to the Sicilian clans. Anticipating rivalries for the lucrative American drug market, he negotiated the establishment of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Mafia_Commission Sicilian Mafia Commission] to mediate disputes.