Every year on March 21, the free network, founded by Don Luigi Ciotti, recalls the innocent victims of all mafias with a public and official ceremony. According to Nando Dalla Chiesa, university professor, professor of Sociology of organized crime at the University of Milan, son of General Carlo Alberto, killed by Cosa Nostra on September 3, 1982: “The original heart of the identity of the association (free editor’s note) is – as he writes in the book Manifesto of the anti -mafia (Einaudi 2014) – In the choice to organize, support, encourage the victims of the mafia to the point that the highest and most solemn moment of its annual activity is notoriously the public acting of the infinite list of the mafia victims (…) in an always different Italian city, a destination on the first day of spring of a large national event “. Reading, which concludes a procession winded through the streets of the chosen city, takes place through the voices of associations and institutional figures committed to spreading culture and commitment against the mafias.
Because the names
“At the first commemoration of the Capaci massacre,” says Don Luigi Ciotti, “Giovanni Falcone and his wife Francesca Morvillo and then the men of the escort, like an inanimate group. Next to me there was a woman dressed in black in tears who at that moment shook my arm forcefully: “Why” asked me crying “why no one ever says the name of my son?” Era Antonio Montinaro’s mother “who with Rocco Dicillo and Vito Schifani died in Capaci in the disintegration of the first armored car of the convoy in which Falcone traveled, fully affected by the explosive. “That question: why nobody ever says the name of my son, why do they always say “the escort” and nobody remembers their names? He lit in me a light bulb, illuminating the need to restore their names to the mafia victims because the memory remains, because they do not die definitively even to memory and collective consciousness “.
Since 1996 Libera has undertaken to remember those names, from that need for memory the list of names of the innocent victims read in public, a gesture in appearance, was born, but which required not only to conceive the idea, but also organization, contacts, and that “has become reality thanks thanks to the decisive role that had the determination of Saveria Antioch, the mother of Roberto, police officer killed with ninni Cassarà in August 6, 1985 “: a long list was born that does not stop growing. The first time (in the photo, 1996) the organization was minimalist: a small stage and a recited list. Gradually involving many associations, students, activists, the organization has made a more complex and participatory year to year.
In 2017 the law and the official
With the law n.20 of 8 March 2017, the state recognized on March 21 as “national day of memory and commitment in memory of the victims of the mafias”. On that occasion of the day “schools of all levels and grade promote, in the context of their autonomy and competence as well as the resources available under current legislation, initiatives aimed at raising awareness of the historical, institutional and social value of the fight against mafias and the memory of the victims of the mafias. In order to preserve, renew and build a shared historical memory in defense of the democratic institutions, public events, ceremonies, meetings, common moments of memory of the facts and reflection may also be organized, as well as initiatives aimed at the construction, in public opinion and in the younger generations, of a memory of the victims of the mafias and events that have characterized the recent history and the success of the state policies of the contrast and repression of all the mafias. The initiatives provided for in this paragraph are organized in the field of human, financial and instrumental resources available under current legislation and in any case without new or greater charges for public finance “.
The choice of March 21st
In the history of the Republic there are different symbolic dates in which it happens to commemorate victims and to remember: among these there are May 23, the day of the massacre of Capaci, in which the day of legality is celebrated, and on May 9, the anniversary of Aldo Moro, the day of the memory of the victims of terrorism, internal and international, and the massacres of this matrix. Unlike these days connected with the anniversary of a mournful event that has particularly affected, In the case of March 21, a symbolic choice was made: the first day of spring. Decision that Don Luigi Ciotti thus told in the book Love is not enoughGiunti, 2020: «We had chosen the first day of spring just to give the sense of long -term commitment. It is in spring that the seeds are thrown, even the seeds of hope, knowing that they will then be cultivated, with effort, skill and passion, because they are fruitful ».
How many are the victims of the mafia
From 1861 to 2024 Libera has registered 1081 names. The last 12 were added compared to the 2023 list. “Twelve stories”, explains the official website of Libera, “of which we learned thanks to the reports of many citizens and towns, who digging in the memory of their territories, have helped to re -emerge from oblivion”. Most of these new entrances dates back to the seventies – nineties of the twentieth century, some are older. One concerns Francesco Pio Maimone 18 years old, “killed by a wandering gunshot on March 20, 2023 at the Mergellina Chalet, on the Naples promenade. The investigating judge of the Court of Naples, at the request of the Neapolitan DDA, ordered the prison for four boys, while for three girls house arrest were ordered. They are accused, in various capacities, of possession of common weapons of gun and aiding and abetting, crimes also aggravated by the mafia methods ». Every year, new procedural results and some innocent who ends up in an ambush which then reveals mafia enrich the list. The need to specify “innocent” victims is the brought of the awareness that in the history of the feud of organized crime, many mafia have also fallen, it is necessary to remember the victims to operate an alien distinction from any ambiguity, as a large one from the risk of generating confusions or indirect consecrations of figures with opaque passes.
