Newsgroup: it.cultura.single
Titolo: Mafia - Dall'Economist

Cosy comfort for Cosa Nostra
May 16th 2002 | PALERMO
Despite big setbacks in the past decade, the Mafia is still far from beaten
TO REMARKABLY little fanfare in the national press, a Sicilian judge has
ruled that there are no grounds, following judicial investigations that had
been carried out between July 1998 and July 2000, for charging Silvio
Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, and Marcello Dell'Utri, a senator in Mr
Berlusconi's right-wing Forza Italia party, with complicity in the murder
ten years ago of the country's two top anti-Mafia magistrates, Giovanni
Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and their escorts. Instead, at the request of
the magistrate who had been investigating those spectacular allegations
against the two politicians by pentiti (repentant mafiosi), the judge in the
Sicilian town of Caltanissetta agreed that the matter should be closed.
At the same time, however, Mr Dell'Utri, a close friend of the prime
minister, remains on trial in Palermo, Sicily's capital, for collusion with
the Mafia. The trial started four-and-a-half years ago. A verdict is
expected by the end of the year. Palermo's appeal court should also soon
decide on the prosecution's appeal against the verdict of not guilty given
to Giulio Andreotti, seven times prime minister in the 1970s and 1980s, who
was charged in 1995 with colluding with the Mafia. Such lethargy alone is
proof that Italy's justice system needs drastic reform.
Caltanissetta's court has been the scene of several large trials of mafiosi
who have now been convicted of murdering Falcone on the road from Palermo's
airport to the capital in May 1992 and of killing Borsellino in a city
suburb two months later. In February and March this year, an appeal court
confirmed life sentences on 24 mafiosi for involvement in Borsellino's
murder.
Though many bosses and their minions are now in jail, other recent judicial
proceedings suggest that the Mafia is still far from beaten—and continues to
have political friends. The idea that the Mafia is on the run is nonsense,
says Domenico Gozzo, a Palermo magistrate. No part of Sicily is free of its
blight. The Sicilian capital remains one of the worst affected places.
Trapani, in the island's west, is particularly bad. Mafia families still
keep a firm grip on their districts, mainly through extortion, explains Mr
Gozzo.
Protection rackets remain common. For instance, in the infamously bloody
town of Gela, on the south coast, they are the main form of crime, says its
deputy police chief. A recent survey there found that young people mainly
blame the Mafia for high unemployment and cite the pizzo (extortion payment)
as the main reason they would not consider starting a business. Extracting
information from victims is hard, says the policeman, though new technology
and local knowledge provide a good idea of how local Mafia families are run.
“The Mafia seems to be working in cells that don't know each other, like
terrorists”
Magistrates in Palermo are less sanguine. Although the Mafia was put on the
defensive after the murders of Falcone and Borsellino, which caused an
unprecedented wave of popular revulsion, it has regrouped and changed in a
way that makes the law's job harder. The flow of talkative pentiti has dried
up. Though the number of murders in Palermo's judicial district rose sharply
last year to 155, the bloodshed has made few headlines. The Mafia is keeping
its head down. “We no longer know how families are connected,” says Mr
Gozzo. “There's a cut-out between those giving and those carrying out
orders. The Mafia seems to be working in cells that don't know each other,
like terrorists.”
Cosa Nostra (“Our Thing”, as the Mafia is often called) has also changed how
it handles its enormous, ill-gotten wealth. Between 1993 and 2000, Palermo's
court sequestered assets totalling 10 trillion lire ($5.8 billion). The
Mafia has taken measures to limit such losses, reducing its investment in
property and diversifying into other assets. It also uses fronts from
outside family circles to hold assets, gets expert financial advice on how
to camouflage cash transactions, and has invested more abroad. Confiscation
is a key part of the fight against the Mafia, says Elio Collova, a
court-appointed administrator of Mafia assets. But a legislative overhaul
under way in the last parliament to make procedures more effective has
stalled.
Worse, more recent legislative proposals may even make the Mafia's life
easier. One would reduce the maximum prison term for fraudulent bankruptcy,
thereby making it impossible to tap suspects' telephones because
investigating magistrates can do so only for serious crimes that carry long
sentences. Another proposal would remove from magistrates the job of
co-ordinating investigations and give politicians a much bigger say in the
process.
Many people fighting the outfit also say that the current barrage of attacks
by ministers on magistrates (for their alleged incompetence, arrogance and
left-wing bias, among other complaints) gives succour to organised
criminals. “Such interventions may mean little to magistrates in Turin [in
the north-west of Italy] but they mean a lot in Sicily because they tell the
Mafia that the state isn't behind us,” says Mr Gozzo, who has been
prosecuting Mr Dell'Utri for alleged association with the Mafia.
So Cosa Nostra is in fair shape. It is certainly looking forward to an
expected inflow of EU cash to help poor Sicily. And it relishes the prospect
of the bridge due to be built between Sicily and mainland Italy: the Mafia
still invariably gets involved in construction projects.
A brave band of investigators and magistrates battles on. But many of them
feel lonely and vulnerable. Anna Maria Palma, a magistrate and friend of
Borsellino who helped prosecute his killers in Caltanissetta, regrets how
little respect the anti-Mafia campaigners now get. “It's very sad,” she
says, “but most people have forgotten the sacrifices made by Falcone and
Borsellino.”

beaten
Già
che ci sei potresti postare pure la traduzione, visto che siamo in un ng
italiano, e visto che altrimenti alcuni potrebbero non capire :-PPPP
Meteora
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 Meteora
Potrei si`... ma mi ci vorrebbe il tempo che mi manca. E` una lettura
piuttosto interessante (secondo me) ed e` anche una buona occasione per
allenare l'inglese.
Take it easy. :-)
--
** Ben Dover
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