July 19 marks the anniversary of the Via D'Amelio massacre in which judge Paolo Borsellino and five escort officers died. After twenty-eight years, many shadows and misdirections still pollute the truth of the facts.
Paolo Borsellino and via D'Amelio
The echo of the massacre was still strong Capaci of May 23, which Palermo and Italy, on July 19, 1992, plunged back into terror. An incessant tamtam announces a terrorist-mafia attack. Judge Paolo Borsellino and his escort died. At number 21, in via D'Amelio, the house of the magistrate's mother, a car filled with explosives awaits him. A Fiat 126 which will then be stolen, at 16:58 pm, caused a hellish explosion. "Hell", in fact, is the word used by Antonino Vullo, the only surviving agent of the magistrate's escort, to describe those dramatic moments.
In the outbreak, in addition to the judge, engaged with Giovanni Falcone, in the largest anti-mafia investigation in Italian history, five escort agents died. All members of the State Police, Agostino Catalano, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina, Claudio Traina and Emanuela Loi: First female police officer to be part of an escort service and first to drop into service.
Paolo Borsellino a busy man
Paolo Borsellino from Palermo, was born in the popular district of Kalsa, with Giovanni Falcone he is considered a leading personality in the fight against the mafia both nationally and internationally. His classical training led him to enroll in the faculty of law at the University of Palermo. During the university period he was actively involved in the student movements. He graduated with honors at the age of twenty-two. His father died shortly after, committing him to run the family pharmacy, waiting for his sister Rita to graduate.
Meanwhile in 1963 he won the competition in the judiciary, becoming the youngest magistrate of Italy. He begins a journey made up of prestigious assignments that will lead him to 1975 toEducation Office of the Court of Palermo and to collaborate with Rocco Chinnici. And in 1980 next to the Captain Basile, to continue a mafia investigation started by Boris Julian. In those years Chinnici established the "Anti-mafia pool". They were part of it Giuseppe di Lello, Leonardo Guarnotta and naturally Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
The experience of the anti-mafia pool
The experience of Paolo Borselino, Giovani Falcone and the other investigating judges in the anti-mafia pool, opened a very important page in Italian history. Let's talk about the Maxiprocess of Palermo which led to the bar 475 accused of mafia crimes, corruption, murder, drug trafficking, extortion. The work of the magistrates stirred public opinion, focusing their eyes on a problem that was often preferred not to see. Si he uncovered a very large Pandora's box, which contained the most shameful trafficking and intrigues.
The last degree of judgment of the maxi-trial took place in 1992. A year that became terrible and tragic. The great achievements of the justice they were overshadowed by attacks, murders and mafia massacres. It started withmurder of the honorable Salvo Lima. Then came the massacre of Capaci on May 23 and, on July 19, that of via D'Amelio. Crimes all claimed by the "Armed Phalanx" but that now years later it is known that they were hatched and commanded by the boss Salvatore Riina.
After twenty-eight years, justice is expected
After twenty-eight years from that terrible year still many shadows hover over the history of that period and the massacres of the mafia. Capaci and via D'Amelio were a challenge to the state for organized crime. It seems that irrefutable evidence has been erased and made to disappear. Just as the famous one disappeared from the scene of the Via D'Amelio massacre red agenda that Judge Borsellino always carried with him and, which contained fundamental elements of investigation.
After twenty-eight years, all of us still ask for justice today. For Falcone, Borsellino the escort agents, but for all the innocent people and the people committed to making this world more just and clean and who instead found death at the hands of unscrupulous criminals. Today Italy is certainly very different from that of 1992. It is hoped that justice and the truth can find the right place.