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Politics and the Sicilian Mafia
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Table of Contents:
1. Introduction2. The Sicilian Issue
a.The loss of Men of Honor3. Berlusconi: Corruption and the Mafia Connection 1993-2004
a.Forza Italiab.Corruption of Entities
4. The Mafia War Against Italy5. The New Face of The Cosa Nostra
a.Matteo Messina Denarob.End of Provenzanos Pax Mafiosi?
6.Antimafia Movement7. Conclusion
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Politics and the Sicilian Mafia
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Many know the Island of Sicily as a warm, sun-filled exotic
paradise that became home to travelers from distant lands. This
paese di sole or land of sun, not only assisted in growing
abundant amounts of lemons, cactus fruit and almonds, but rather
something mysterious, secret and somewhat intoxicating. A force
so strong that even academics today are baffled by a society that
has planted its roots deeper than the palm trees of Palermo,
which has survived the greatest of wars and the upmost of
inadequacies in both the public and political spheres. With its
thirst for power and honor, which fights unforgivably for what is
theirs, Our Thing or as we better know it, la Cosa Nostra.
With the lack of a stable government and an inadequate public
service system, one can only imagine why the Cosa Nostra was
created. For thousands of years, the island was torn apart by
Greek, Arab and Roman invaders, to name a few, who destroyed the
land that was know as the Tear of God. Their barbaric methods
and oppressive control pushed the Sicilians to fight back,
reclaiming their land. Up until Italian Unification, Sicilians
closely guarded the island in fear of losing it again. From this
moment onwards Sicily would be changed forever.
In Sicily, the Cosa Nostra once were words unheard, but today
these two words represent the ugliness and backwardness of
Sicilian society. Younger generations no longer want to hear of
Our Thing, but instead continuously talk about how it is
actually Cosa Loromeaning their thing. Since the word our
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[Nostra], is representing the entire Sicilian population wanting
and willing to behave in a certain way, which partakes in illegal
affairs and transitioning it into something that no longer has a
sense of community. Sicilians, therefore separate them from us.
With rough times finally passing after the Anni di Piombo
[Years of Lead], a period of extreme right and left wing
terrorism in Italy during the 1970s and early 1980s and hard
economic recession, the late 1980s gave hope to not only many
Italians but first and foremost to Sicilians. Willing to move on
from dark decades, Sicilians truly wanted to better themselves
but could not because of mafia wars. Blood was being shed
unmercifully across the volcanic island as bosses from Palermo
were vying for power.
The Sicilian Issue:
The early 1980s in Sicily were met with the Second Mafia War
as the Corleonese boss Salvatore Riina decimated other Mafia
families. This war resulted in hundreds of murders including high
profile ones such as the murder of Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa,
the head of the counter-terrorism team that arrested Red Brigades
founders in 1974. In Palermo on July 29, 1983, Rocco Chinnici,
judge and Antimafia Pool leader, was blown up with his two
bodyguards on his street. Assassin Pino Greco was the one that
pulled the trigger on the bomb that was ordered by his uncle, the
well-known Mafioso Michele il Papa Greco. After their deaths,
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the Italian state quickly tried to contain the Mafia and tried to
figure out its codes.
Sicilians prayed that the worst was finally over, but on
February 10, 1986 the Maxi Trials took place. These criminal
trials managed to convict 474 Mafiosi while another 119 remand on
the run, including Salvatore Riina. Antimafia magistrates
Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino indicted 459 of the alleged
Mafia members, but quickly their victories against the Mafia
would unknowingly then cost them their lives. In 1992, La Cosa
Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, declared war against the state of
Italy with a series of high-profile murders and bomb attacks on
the Italian mainland.
1
On May 23, 1992, the Italian magistrate Falcone was killed
with his wife and three bodyguards on the motorway from the
Palermo Airport at Punta Raisi to Palermo near the town of
Capaci. This gruesome murder was organized by Salvatore Tot
1Strage di Capaci. Capaci, Sicily May 23, 1992.
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Riina in revenge for Falcones conviction of mobsters. His death
caused simultaneously nationwide outrage and panic as people of
all nationalities heard about the loss of a man of honor. The
Italian state remained shocked as state television reported the
heartbreaking event. Falcones partner and newly appointed lead
magistrate of the team against the Mafia, Paolo Borsellino stated
during his speech at Falcones funeral on May 25, 1992:
The fight against mafia, which is the first problem to
solve in our unfortunate and beautiful land, must be notonly a cold repressive action, but a moral and culturalmovement, involving everyone, especially youngergenerations, the most fit to feel the beauty of the freshtaste of freedom that sweeps away the foulness of moralcompromise, of indifference, of contiguity and, hence, ofcomplicity.2
Paolo Borsellino knew he was next to go after the lost of his
dear friend. He publicly made a speech saying: They will kill
me, but it will not be a mafias revenge, mafia do not use
revenge. Maybe mafia will materially kill me, but who actually
will order my murder will be others.3 Less than two months
after the death of Falcone, on July 19, 1992, Borsellino was
killed by a car bomb on Via DAmelio in Palermos city center
while visiting his mother, after have eaten lunch with his wife
and children in Villagrazia.
2Paolo Borsellino. State Funeral of Giovanni Falcone. May 25,
1992
3Paolo Borsellino. Italian National TV. June 9, 1992
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4
With the lost of Italys top two magistrates that legally
waged war against the Sicilian Mafia, many Sicilians started to
take matters into their own hands, especially women. The Bed
Sheet Commission of Palermo(Il Comitato dei Lenzuoli di
Palermo), were a group of women in the city of Palermo, who
printed the faces of Falcone and Borsellino on their bed sheets
along with the saying: Non li avete uccisi: Le loro idee
camminano sulle nostre gambe, [You have not killed them: Their
ideas walk on our legs.] All over Palermo these sheets were
hanging from the balconies of most apartment buildings. They
transmitted the sentiment that the Mafia was not a liked
organization and that the people would fight back and no longer
stand for such a backward and oppressive society.
4Via DAmelio, Palermo Italy. July 19, 1992.http://bragiu.files.wordpress.com/2006/07/damel.jpg
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5
Berlusconi: Corruption and the Mafia Connection 1993-2004:
On January 26, 1994, Silvio Berlusconi a political outsider,
business tycoon who owned and continues to own Fininvest, one of
the top ten privately owned companies in Italy, Mediolanum,
Mediaset, the soccer club A.C. Milan, the largest Italian
publishing house Mondadori and centre right wing newspapers such
as Il Giornale, announced his decision to enter the field of
politics.
His rise was made possible due to the political crisis known
as Mani Pulite [Clean Hand]. The latter scandals cam to the fore
when a nationwide Italian judicial investigation into political
corruption and crimes committed occurred by industry leaders.
Nonetheless knowing that his businesses may be investigated,
5Comitato Dei Lenzuoli-Palermo, 23 May 1993.http://lh4.ggpht.com/_O6kPZxx072c/R0C8QXue26I/AAAAAAAABYM/4WrbbAXB6II/lenzu.jpg
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Berlusconi created the Forza Italia [Go Italy] party that was a
right wing political party that made strong alliances with Lega
Nord[Northern League], Polo delle Libert [Poles of Liberty] and
the Alleanza Nazionale [National Alliance]parties.
The Lega Nord is a strong right wing northern Italian
district party founded in 1991. Led currently by Umberto Bossi,
it is a federation of several regional parties of Northern and
Central Italy who advocate succession from the state of Italy due
to their common idea that its southern regions steal all the
money from the North. Their hatred for these southern regions
comes from the failure of La Cassa per il Mezzogiorno- a fund
created for the South in the 1950s to stimulate economic growth
and development for Sicily, Sardegna, Calabria, Molise, Puglia
and Basilicata. Due to corruption in the Italian government,
money was appropriated neither efficiently nor honestly which led
to a complete halt of the project, inevitably keeping the South
from economically growing like the rest of the regions in Italy.
Since the South was originally made up of different latifundia
[agricultural estates], it never really went through the
industrialization that the central and northern regions
experienced. In order to start an industrial revolution in the
South, the government created the fund to speed up the process
and to create more jobs.
The party Polo delle Libert [Pole of Freedoms] was a center-
right electoral coalition created by Silvio Berlusconi in 1994.
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At first, only in Northern Italy, it quickly expanded to the
south with the creation of the Pole of Good Government. The
Alleanza Nazionale or National Alliance is a post-fascist
political partycurrently led by Gianfranco Fini whom is also the
President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Before the National
Alliance existed, Fini was secretary of the Movimento Sociale
Italiano [Italian Social Movement Party] until it dissolved in
1995. It was founded after World War II in the light that the
right wing will continue to rule the government. With their neo-
fascist ideology, the
Berlusconi won the elections three months after he created
his Forza Italia party in March 1994. He launched one of the
greatest electoral campaigns in modern history with numerous
advertisements on his three TV networks. He subsequently won the
elections with Forza Italia garnering 21 percent of the popular
vote, the highest percentage of any single party.6
In December 1994 his coalition collapsed after Umberto Bossi
left the coalition due to Berlusconi being investigated by Milan
magistrates for allegedly having connections to the Mafia.
However this was not the sole reason for the collapse of the
governing coalition. It could be argued that it collapsed because
of a contradiction within, the Northern League was fluctuating
6"Elezioni della Camera dei Deputati del 27 Marzo 1994,http://elezionistorico.interno.it/liste.php?tp=C&dt=27/03/1994&cta=I&tpEnte=A&tpSeg=C&numEnte=0&sut1=&sut2=&sut3=&descEnte=&descArea=ITALIA&codTipoSegLeader=
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between federalist and separatist positions and the National
Alliance did not renounce neo-fascism at the time.
During the time period between 1994-2008 Berlusconi has had
twenty-two criminal allegations against him. Five of the twenty-
two were dropped trials that consisted of bribery of judges,
bribe to Bettino Craxi, Lentini affair of false accounting, these
three crimes were dropped due to time limits7, Propaganda 2
Masonic lodge trial of false testimony and the Macherio estates
false accounting trial, in both trials amnesty applied due to the
1992 fiscal remission law there for no time was served by the
Prime Minister. Eight crimes were acquitted. These eight
consisted of, false accounting on All Iberian 2 and Sme-Ariosto 2
that were acquitted since Berlusconi passed a law on false
accounting that covered him8
. The other acquittals included
bribery of the Guardia di Finanza, bribes to judges, false
accounting of a Cinema company.
That said Berlusconi was acquitted since he was too rich to
be aware of such small amounts, embezzlement, tax evasion and
false accounting of the Macherio estates and of television
rights. Seven trials that have been archived are: False
7 According to Italian law, the "statute of limitations" does notimply innocence but acquits the accused from any further legalproceeding; it may in fact indicate guilt if the statute oflimitations is applied after conceding benefits for previous good conduct,since such benefits can only be granted after guilt is ascertained, as per:Corte di Cassazione, Sect. IV, Sentence no.5069, May 21, 1996
8All Iberian, Berlusconi acquitted. "False accounting is not a wrongdoinganymore"http://www.repubblica.it/2005/i/sezioni/cronaca/allibe/allibe/allibe.html
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accounting and embezzlement of Fininvest, false accounting of
Consolidato Fininvest, Agreement on division of publicity between
Rai and Fininvest television, drug trafficking, tax bribery on
the Pay-TV, collusion into the 1992-1993 slaughters, and Mafia
collusion and money laundering with Marcello DellUtri, his
connections to many Mafiosi such as Vittorio Mangano, a life
sentence gangster who worked many years for Berlusconi at his
villa in Milan, whom was introduced by Marcello DellUtri, co-
founder of Forza Italia who allegedly has an external
association to the Mafia. DellUtri, now a senator in the
Italian Senate in the Pdl [Popolo delle Libert], has been
sentenced to over ten years in jail since 1999, but still has
never served jail time. According to Antonio Giuffr, pentito,
told authorities that DellUtri was very close to the Cosa
Nostra and a very good contact point for Berlusconi.9 Ongoing
trials include bribe to British lawyer David Mills, and
corruption of senators of the Prodi government camp.
Whether or not the allegation about Mafia collusion is true,
there has been much talk about whether or not Italys current
Prime Minister is truly a friend of the Cosa Nostra. After the
deaths of Falcone and Borsellino, Forza Italia was created and
within months Berlusconi won the elections. With the endless
scandals and laws being broken, one could only think that he
would have connections with the Mafia.
9Mafia supergrass fingers Berlusconi by Philip Willan, TheObserver, January 12, 2003
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The Mafia War Against Italy:
Regardless of what was happening in Rome, other things were
boiling down south at the same time. In January 1993, the Cosa
Nostras bosses of bosses, Salvatore Tot Riina was captured.
With his capture came the mafias campaign of terrorism. Tourist
spots such as Via Palestro in Milan, Via dei Georgofili in
Florence, as well as Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano and Via San
Teodoro in Rome, were attacked. These attacks left 10 dead and
close to 100 injured. Additionally, these attacks severely
damaged cultural sites such as the Uffizi Gallery in Florence,
with the loss of precious artwork and the collapse of the Torre
dei Pulci in Florence.
This is when the Vatican raised its voice by condemning the
mafia, which led to churches being bombed such as the San Giorgio
al Velabro in Rome. In addition anti-mafia priests, such as Fr.
Giuseppe Puglisi were killed. After the death of Fr. Giuseppe
Puglisi, pastor of San Gaetano Parish in Brancaccio, a section of
the city of Palermo, who was murdered in front of his home
because of his involvment in organizing its inhabitants to resist
the Mafias influence, the Vatican made no effort to fight back.
In fact Pope John Paul II did not even travel to Palermo for the
funeral of the pastor.
After these terrorist acts, new leadership of the mafia began
under Bernardo Binn Provenzano began. The mafia commenced its
campaign of quietness, better known as pax Mafiosi. The pax
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Mafiosi that literally translates into peace between the
Mafiosi, was established rightfully in order to return the mafia
to the secret society it used to be before Riina waged war
against the State of Italy.
During this time, the mafia grew to be so well known that
their own publicity began to hurt them tremendously. The mafia
began to slowly regain the power it had previously held under
Riinas leadership. Provenzano ran the mafia in a different way,
a way that was simultaneously more vicious but less bloody. One
of his strategies was to halt the murder of state officials, as
well as informants and their families. His rationale was the
following: to turn the pentito [informant], against the state
by retracting their testimonies. Under his control a common
support fund was re-established for Mafiosi that were imprisoned.
After forty-three years on the run, Bernardo Provenzano was
arrested after being found in an old run down farmhouse nearby
Corleone on April 11, 2006.
The New Faces of the Sicilian Mafia:
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10
The capture of Provenzano led to the search of the new face
of the Cosa Nostra, one of the young turks within the Sicilian
Mafia, whom wanted to get rid of Provenzano in 1998, according to
the pentita Giusy Vitale, sister of Mafia boss Leonardo Vitale of
Partinico. Although this theory of being the new boss has not
been confirmed, allegedly Provenzano nominated Messina Denaro on
one of his pizzinior little slips of paper used to communicate
amongst Mafiosi in order to avoid phone conversations.
With the end of Provenzanos reign over the Cosa Nostra and
alleged leadership under Messino Denaro, may have brought the
demise of the Pax Mafiosi. When the police busted into the
Sicilian countryside house and arrested Provenzano, the boss of
all bosses turned to them and said, You have no idea what
10Matteo Messina Denaro, LEspresso, Ecco il nuovo capo dellaMafia. June 23, 2006
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youve done. Since his plan was to unite the Cosa Nostra and
bring balance to the organization, his arrest could only bring
uncertainty and inevitably unrest amongst Mafiosi, specifically
Matteo Messina Denaro and Salvatore Lo Piccolo.
Matteo Messina Denaro better known amongst other Mafiosi as
Alessio, was born into a mafia family in the town of
Castelvetrano, Province of Trapani. After the death of his father
in 1998, Matteo became capo mandamento or leader of the region of
Castelvetrano and the neighboring cities, and then finally of
Trapani and the whole Trapanese region in 2001.11 He currently
commands 900 men of honor and reorganized the twenty Mafia
families of Trapani into one big one that is separate from the
rest of Cosa Nostra. The Trapanese Mafia is considered to be the
solid pedestal or zoccolo duro of the Cosa Nostra and the second
most powerful in Sicily after the families of Palermo.
The Anti-Mafia Movement:
After the deaths of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino,
the Anti-Mafia movement became stronger and united. Organizations
such as Libera: Associazioni, Nomi E Numeri Contro le Mafie
[Libera: Associations, Names and Numbers Against all the Mafia]
became one of the largest anti-mafia organizations in Italy.
11 Relazione conclusive, Final report of the Antimafia Commission,presided by senator Roberto Centaro, January 2006
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Their goal is to sell products that are traditionally from
Sicily, without having the mafias hands all over them.
12
La lotto contro la mafia [Fight against the Mafia] has been a
tough one, especially when the government does not fight together
with the people. In Sicily the revolt against the Mafia seems to
be loosing its thrive. After Berlusconis Forza Italia party and
the National Alliance took the majority of directly elected seats
and proportional ones. The anti-Mafia party, La Rete, lost all of
its support and was no longer represented.
On June 29, 2004, the Comitato AddioPizzo [Goodbye Pizzo] was
created in Palermo. Their movement began while a few friends were
12Libera Movement.http://www.liberainformazione.org/img/big_logoLibera%28286%29.gif
.jpeg
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talking about opening up a bar in the city and one of them said,
And what if they ask us for the pizzo?13 The next morning the
city of Palermo woke up to streets, signs and stands covered in
stickers with the saying Un Intero Popolo Che Paga Il Pizzo Un
Popolo Senza Dignit [An entire people who pay the pizzo are
people without dignity].
14
Although there has been an emergence of Anti-Mafia groups
such as AddioPizzo and Libera for example, the truth of the fact
is, is that in order to fight against the Mafia, the people need
to be united. With unity anything can be accomplished, and if the
government assisted the people in need, who have to battle daily
and breath mafia, then this secretive organization would be no
longer. For such an old organization such as the Mafia, the anti-
Mafia movement is so new and underdeveloped.
13
AddioPizzo, www.addiopizzo.org/nascita.asp December 18, 2009.
14AddioPizzo, www.addiopizzo.org/nascita.asp December 18, 2009.
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In a country such as Italy, with such a chaotic history, the
government has failed its people. From the 1980s when they
created the first Anti-Mafia commission under General Carlo
Alberto Dalla Chiesa, to the assassinations of Falcone and
Borsellino, all people that died for this country in order to
make it a place of equal opportunity and to save it from such a
backwards and oppressed society. Unfortunately, the government
has not taken its proper revenge against these gangsters and
criminals that end upon end bring disgrace and defame Italian
culture and life, not only within the country but
internationally.
Instead of hatred amongst each other politically speaking, we
need to work together and bring unity to Italy, in order to
battle and defeat for good the Cosa Nostra and the other Italian
Mafia.
Bibliography
AddioPizzo, www.addiopizzo.org/nascita.asp December 18,
2009.
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Libera Movement. http://www.liberainformazione.org/img/
big_logoLibera%28286%29.gif.jpeg
Relazione conclusive, Final report of the Antimafia
Commission, presided by senator Roberto Centaro, January 2006
Matteo Messina Denaro, LEspresso, Ecco il nuovo capo
della Mafia. June 23, 2006
Mafia supergrass fingers Berlusconi by Philip Willan,
The Observer, January 12, 2003
According to Italian law, the "statute of limitations"does not imply innocence but acquits the accused from anyfurther legal proceeding; it may in fact indicate guilt ifthe statute of limitations is applied after concedingbenefits for previous good conduct, since such benefits canonly be granted after guilt is ascertained, as per: Corte diCassazione, Sect. IV, Sentence no.5069, May 21, 1996
All Iberian, Berlusconi acquitted. "False accounting is
not a wrong doing anymorehttp://www.repubblica.it/2005/i/
sezioni/cronaca/allibe/allibe/allibe.html
Elezioni della Camera dei Deputati del 27 Marzo 1994,
http://elezionistorico.interno.it/liste.php?tp=C&dt=27/03/1994&cta=I&tpEn
te=A&tpSeg=C&numEnte=0&sut1=&sut2=&sut3=&descEnte=&descArea=ITALIA&codTip
oSegLeader=
Comitato Dei Lenzuoli-Palermo, 23 May 1993.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_O6kPZxx072c/R0C8QXue26I/AAAAAAAABYM/4Wr
bbAXB6II/lenzu.jpg
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Paolo Borsellino. State Funeral of Giovanni Falcone. May25, 1992
Paolo Borsellino. Italian National TV. June 9, 1992
Strage di Capaci. Capaci, Sicily May 23, 1992.
Via DAmelio, Palermo Italy. July 19, 1992.
http://bragiu.files.wordpress.com/2006/07/damel.jpg
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