Messina Denaro, the final nice boss of the lead years of Cosa Nostra, was arrested this Monday He is among the many organizers of among the mafia massacres towards the State within the 90s The new Sicilian mafia must return to enterprise after these many years paying a heavy value for his or her violence
In Campobello di Mazara, the streets are abandoned, it appears like a metropolis inhabited by carabinieri, policemen and journalists. Some retirees, all males, are within the bars. They smoke, they drink espresso. As quickly as they see a stranger approaching, they transfer away. One even avoids saying whats up, overlaying his mouth along with his finger making a zipper and saying nothing else. An image is value a thousand phrases, the omertà remains to be current within the inside of western Sicily, within the province of Trapani the place Messina Denaro was grasp and mafioso lord after which a fugitive with out dropping his energy. In the three hiding locations discovered on this city, which type a triangle, the massive boss stored luxurious objects, papers, telephones, notes, account books… He even had a full fridge, the notion that he was main an nearly regular life. making the most of the truth that nearly no pictures had been recognized of him is the conclusion drawn by legislation enforcement. However, on this place nobody claims to have met him, they do not need to discuss, even when they don’t have anything to cover, simply to keep away from exposing themselves. The energy of the mob continues to be in small cities that of intimidation. The phrase fatti gli affari tuoi (take into consideration your enterprise) is repeated as an awesome euphemism for this thick fog of silence on this small city of 10,000 inhabitants the place everybody is aware of one another.
Those who “dared” to reply are all middle-aged, round 30 or 40 years previous, they converse extra freely, however the tone remains to be a bit whispery. They say they’re shocked however not afraid, they disassociate themselves from the picture of Messina Denaro and remorse, sure, that their neighbors, the driving force, and the person whose id the mafioso confiscated, Andrea Bonafede, allowed themselves to be carried away by the stream of mala vita Through a river of mud. They don’t outline it that method however their expressions converse of “that different aspect”, that line that separates their regular lives and “that different life”. This is how you reside with the presence of the mafia, as if life carried two parallel rhythms, two worlds. The mayor of Campobello, Giuseppe Castiglione, brazenly awaits the acquittal of the third individual concerned, a retired physician who served many of those residents for years and who, apparently, helped Messina Denaro. That is identical notion of Emilio, who lives two steps from the bunker home, and feels, above all, dissatisfied to be taught of the involvement of his typical neighbors. “About Messina Denaro we now have by no means recognized something, however the others had been good individuals, we’re in shock”, he explains.
In her hometown, Castelvetrano, simply 9 km from right here and the place her aunts nonetheless stay, the ambiance is one among liberation. “It has been like a cross that we now have at all times held on, simply because Messina Denaro was born right here, now we really feel liberated”, explains a municipal employee. Demonstrations have been organized for days within the city sq., which has some 30,000 inhabitants, however on Thursday Giuseppe Cimarosa, nephew of the capo who renounced his household’s mafia future, was accompanied by solely a dozen individuals within the sq. to rejoice the arrest. “I’ve put my life in peril and I’ve satisfied my father, who’s not right here, to collaborate with justice. I threat my life daily with the choice to remain in Castevetrano however the ones who’ve to go away are them, not us”, he says. The omertà remains to be very latent, individuals keep away from exposing themselves to keep away from reprisals. Living for many years with an influence as deep-rooted because the mafia, the Cosa Nostra, which has ears all over the place and exerts its menace particularly in small locations, makes you naturally distrustful.
“It is regular to be afraid, individuals need to stay in peace. In a metropolis like Palermo issues have modified, an anti-mafia tradition has been generated that has welcomed many determined individuals. In the villages, issues are usually not really easy”, explains Leonardo, a taxi driver from Palermo who displays on the information of the week and on the silence of the deepest Sicily. In the capital the state of affairs is completely different. In 2004, 80% of the retailers paid the pizzo, the mafia tax, in line with knowledge from the affiliation that offers with supporting extortion victims, AddioPizzo. “Now they pay a lot much less, a help community has been created and folks have the choice to say no, face injustice and be capable to proceed their lives even in that very same place. Over the years, Cosa Nostra has understood that the extra it used violence, the more severe it was, the much less room for motion it had for its companies”, explains Daniele Marannaro from the affiliation. “Now the pizzo is extra of an trade. The individuals who pay it are searching for one thing from the mafia, safety, choice within the markets, fixing inner issues…”, he provides.
Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s most wished mafia boss, being led out of the Palermo well being clinic the place he was arrested this morning after 30 years on the run pic.twitter.com/oeKIBvR8XN
— Tom Kington (@tomkington) January 16, 2023
Half of the belongings confiscated by the Italian state from the mafia are on Sicilian territory. The signal of a time when the Cosa Nostra was not solely highly effective, however had been the one which had managed to have probably the most highly effective relations with politics. Chameleónica, will now attempt to return, to get well the time that the technique of the lead, failed with all its representatives useless and in jail after the ultimate arrest of Messina Denaro, stole from them. They consider the places of work of the prosecution that can return to the technique of silence, after many years the place they’ve understood that it’s only there the place enterprise may be achieved. The ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, has stolen their prominence and for years has been the one which strikes medicine all through Europe and the world. “The Cosa Nostra continues in an episode of disaster that started after the period of the Corleonesi, within the 90s. In these years, with the river of blood, deaths and drama that they created all through Italy, they misplaced financial energy and time. And they misplaced the battle”, explains one of many main mafia consultants, Francesco Forgione, former president of the anti-mafia parliamentary fee.
Now the Sicilian mafia will attempt to regain floor within the sale of medication, proceed with on-line playing and keep the mafia bourgeoisie community that for 30 years made issues simpler for Messina Denaro. Lawyers, docs, businessmen with whom he has constructed companies and that his successors must know easy methods to keep. Of course, the time of the massive bosses appears to have come to an finish for now.