- Salvatore Cancemi
Salvatore Cancemi (Palermo,
March 19 ,1942 ) was a member of the SicilianMafia . He would be the first member of theSicilian Mafia Commission that turned himself in voluntarily and became apentito , a collaborator with the Italian judicial authorities. Cancemi made controversial allegations about the collusion of Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi and his right-hand manMarcello Dell'Utri with the Mafia, which have not been corroborated until this day.Mafia career
Cancemi’s blood family had no tradition within the Mafia, his father had set up a thriving butcher shop. Cancemi was initiated into the Porta Nuova Mafia family in 1976 at the age of 34. His godfather was
Vittorio Mangano . In 1985 he substitutedGiuseppe Calò as the boss of the Porta Nuova family after Calò was arrested. He replaced Calò in the Cupola (theSicilian Mafia Commission ) as head of themandamento of Porta Nuova that included the Mafia families of Palermo Centro and Borgo Vecchio as well.In 1976 Cancemi was send to jail for stealing a load of meat of a butcher that refused to pay the "pizzo" – protection money. In prison
Tommaso Buscetta took care of the freshly initiated Cancemi. Twenty years later, when Cancemi was reunited with Buscetta at one of the many trials in the 1990s, he confessed that he had personally participated in the strangling of two of Buscetta’s sons in 1982, on the order ofTotò Riina . Buscetta embraced Cancemi and said: "You could not refuse the order. I forgive you because I know what it means to be in Cosa Nostra."Dickie, "Cosa Nostra", p. 416-17]Cancemi was involved in the preparations and executions of the murders on Antimafia magistrates
Giovanni Falcone andPaolo Borsellino in 1992. He acted as a look-out for the team that placed and detonated the bomb atCapaci which killed Falcone, his wife and three men of his escort.Stille, "Excellent Cadavers", p. 404-05] Cancemi initially denied to have participated in the murder on Borsellino, but had to admit his involvement when other pentiti confirmed his participation.Cancemi described the victory celebration that followed the Capaci bombing.
Totò Riina ordered French champagne and while the others toasted Cancemi and another futurepentito ,Santo Di Matteo looked at one another and exchanged a gloomy assessment of Riina and their future: "This cuckold will be the ruin of us all."Stille, "Excellent Cadavers", p. 404-05]Pentito
On
July 22 ,1993 , Cancemi walked into theCarabinieri station on Piazza Verdi inPalermo and turned himself in. Riina had been arrested onJanuary 15 that year and his followers stepped up the terrorist strategy that had been started the year before with the killing of Falcone and Borsellino after theMaxi Trial sentence had been confirmed.On
May 28 ,1993 , the Mafia detonated a bomb severely damaging theUffizi Gallery in Florence starting a series of bomb attacks on places of cultural heritage. A few days after Cancemi’s surrender bombs detonated at the Villa Reale Museum and the Pavilion of Contemporary Art in Milan, onJuly 27 and the Church of San Giorgio and the Lateran Vicariate in Rome onJuly 28 . In total the attacks left 10 people dead and 93 injured.Cancemi opposed the violent terrorist strategy and feared for his life because he had said so. Riina’s brother in law
Leoluca Bagarella also suspected that Cancemi had been behind the arrest of the Mafia boss.Controversial declarations
Many of the allegations of Cancemi are controversial. Cancemi told prosecutors that the choice of the 1993 mainland bomb targets had been ‘suggested’ to Cosa Nostra since the organisation did not possess sufficient ‘refinement’ to select them autonomously. He said that
Totò Riina and others had implied that they had support from individuals inside the State institutions. Riina and Provenzano told him that they had found ‘political contacts’ through which things would improve and legislation regarding the harsharticle 41-bis prison regime would be changed. [Jamieson, "The Antimafia", p. 212]In 1996, Cancemi declared that
Silvio Berlusconi and his right-hand manMarcello Dell'Utri were in direct contact with Riina who ordered the bombings which killed Antimafia magistrates,Giovanni Falcone andPaolo Borsellino . After a two-year investigation, magistrates closed the inquiry without charges in 2002. [http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/corrupt/2001/0426it.htm An Italian Story] , The Economist, April 26, 2001] [it [http://www.repubblica.it/online/politica/falcone/archiviato/archiviato.html Stragi mafiose: il gip archivia] , La Repubblica, April 5, 2002] [it [http://www.cuntrastamu.org/mafia/documenti/archiviazione.pdf Decreto di archiviazione] ] They did not find evidence to corroborate Cancemi’s allegations. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,710586,00.html Murder case against Berlusconi dropped] , The Guardian, May 6, 2002] Similarly, a two-year investigation, also launched on evidence from Cancemi, into Berlusconi’s alleged association with the Mafia was closed in 1996. [http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/corrupt/2001/0426it.htm An Italian Story] , The Economist, April 26, 2001] [it [http://www.repubblica.it/2004/l/sezioni/politica/dellutri/dellusentenza/dellusentenza.html Accusa e difesa del senatore "M"; Una vicenda lunga dieci anni] , La Repubblica, December 11, 2004]Salvatore Cancemi disclosed that
Fininvest , through Marcello Dell'Utri and mafiosoVittorio Mangano , had paid Cosa Nostra 200 million lire (100 000 euro) annually. The alleged contacts, according to Cancemi, were to lead to legislation favourable to Cosa Nostra, in particular the harsh 41-bis prison regime. The underlying premise was that Cosa Nostra would support Berlusconi'sForza Italia party in return for political favours. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4183973,00.html Berlusconi friend on trial for 'aiding Mafia'] , The Guardian, May 10, 2001]Despite convictions for participating in several murders, for instance the ones on
Christian Democrat politicianSalvatore Lima (DC -Democrazia Cristiana ), the magistratesGiovanni Falcone andPaolo Borsellino , and police officerNinni Cassarà , Cancemi is not incarcerated. When asked about the current apparent 'pax mafiosa', Salvatore Cancemi said: "I find this silence more terrifying than the bombs."Dickie, "Cosa Nostra", p. 442] [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,,1148236,00.html Sins of the godfathers] , The Observer, February 15, 2004]Biography
*it icon "Riina mi fece i nomi di… Confessioni di un ex boss della Cupola" (2002) Salvatore Cancemi and Giorgio Bongiovanni, Massari editore, ISBN 88-457-0178-6
References
*Dickie, John (2004). "Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia", London: Coronet, ISBN 0-340-82435-2 ( [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,6121,1148236,00.html Review] in the Observer, February 15, 2004)
*Jamieson, Alison (2000). "The Antimafia: Italy’s fight against organized crime", London: Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-80158-X.
*Stille, Alexander (1995). "Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic", New York: Vintage ISBN 0-09-959491-9
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