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    Politics and the Sicilian Mafia

    2

    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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    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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