Salvatore Borsellino: “The State is abandoning those who want the truth about the negotiations”

 The evening with Salvatore Borsellino, Don Aniello Manganiello, Antonella Buonopane and Emanuela Cometti at the Villaggio del Fanciullo, which was attended by more than one hundred people of Vergiate, was one of strong emotions. The discussion on Friday evening covered the battle against the mafia organisations and the great need for truth about the death of Paolo Borsellino in the terrible attack in Via D’Amelio, in Palermo, on 19 July 1992, when five police officers acting as body guards, Emanuela Loi (the first policewoman to die in service), Agostino Catalano, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina and Claudio Traina, also died.

Moments of pure emotion filled the powerful words of Salvatore Borsellino, who, since his brother’s death, has toured Italy, first to commemorate Paolo Borsellino, then to give hope to the young people in schools and, finally, to ask the State for the truth about what happened during the days that preceded the assassination of his brother and about the negotiations between members of the government and the Mafia. Before Salvatore, there were speeches by representatives of the battle against the Mafia, in the social sphere and in the civil commitment. Emanuela Cometti, a teacher of law, at the I.I.S. Dalla Chiesa, in Sesto Calende, and consultant criminologist at Novara Prison, described the education projects conducted with the students at her school; Antonella Buonopane, a representative of Libera Varese, described the situation of the properties seized from the Mafia, and how they are re-used in the province (77 properties) and in Lombardy (almost 1000), with all of the difficulties as a result of the slowness of the authorities and the problems caused by the law on seizure. Then it was the turn of Don Aniello Manganiello, who has fought the Camorra for 16 years, starting with the community in which it began, in a problem area of Naples, namely Scampia.

And finally, Salvatore Borsellino, who lifted the red notebook that is the symbol of his obstinate search for the truth about the massacres carried out by the Mafia. “It was my brother who told me to come back, in one of his last letters. I understood later that those words were for me, that I had left Sicily in order not to see the bodies of those who devoted their lives to fighting this phenomenon. This proves that Paolo’s real brother was Giovanni Falcone, because they never abandoned Palermo.” Salvatore Borsellino spoke about the last 20 years, from the lies and empty truths told by important government representatives. According to his reconstruction, Paolo Borsellino was killed because he had found out about the negotiations, and “in order to save the lives of some politicians that the Mafia wanted to kill, the government decided to sacrifice him.” These very strong words were met by applause of agreement from the audience, who were visibly moved by such strength. The applause also confirmed the wish to know exactly what happened, to understand the equilibriums that were broken and those that were created after the fall of Christian Democracy and the arrival of Forza Italia. In the end, Salvatore Borsellino made a plea to stay close, like a civil escort, to the magistrates in Palermo and Caltanissetta who are investigating the negotiations and who it was that ordered the death of his brother. “Nino Di Matteo, who recently received a death threat from the indomitable Totò Riina in prison, should be protected. Angelino Alfano, the Italian Minister of the Interior, denied this man a bomb jammer (a device that intercepts and turns off the frequencies of the mobile phones often used to activate bombs, ed.), claiming that it was harmful to health, and then one was used for Obama’s visit, and for the conclave of the cardinals who elected the Pope.”