 Li Causi became the main rival of separatist leader Finocchiaro Aprile and the most consistent enemy of separatism.On September 16, 1944, Li Causi and the local socialist leader Michele Pantaleone, as leaders of the "Blocco del popolo" (Popular Front) in Sicily, went to speak to the landless labourers at an election rally in Villalba, challenging the Mafia boss Calogero Vizzini in his own personal fiefdom.In the morning tensions rose when Christian Democrat mayor Beniamino Farina – a relative of Vizzini as well as his successor as mayor – angered local communists by ordering all hammer-and-sickle signs erased from buildings along the road on which Li Causi would travel into town.