'Ndranghetisti and Freemasons, the oath on Garibaldi, Mazzini and La Marmora
PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION OF INQUIRY XV LEGISLATURE
April 15, 2022 • 19:00
The “Santa”, the 'Ndrangheta structure created in the mid-70s of the last century. The young and ambitious members of the clans could be admitted to it, eager to break the chains of the old bonds of the society of mischief and to compete with the outside world, which offered infinite possibilities of insertion, enrichment, gratification.
The Mafia Blog continues on Domani, from an idea by Attilio Bolzoni. You can follow it on this page . Each month a macro-theme, studied in depth with new content a day in collaboration with the Cosa tua association. This series focuses on the report of the Anti-Mafia Parliamentary Commission of the 15th legislature with president Francesco Forgione who for the first time has dedicated an investigation entirely to the Ndrangheta, one of the most feared mafias in the world, to understand its birth, development and structure. .
The 70s represent a real watershed that will mark the course and history of the 'Ndrangheta, laying the foundations of its evolution up to the economic and military power that today distinguishes its role on the territories and in the international criminal scenario.
In those years the much analyzed and investigated relationship with Freemasonry, historically rooted in Calabrian society, was also consolidated.
The magistrates of the DDA of Reggio Calabria write in this regard: "This is the entry of the leaders of the 'Ndrangheta into Freemasonry, which can only take place after a radical change in the' culture 'and politics' of the' Ndrangheta, a change that passes from an attitude of opposition, or at least of total detachment, with respect to civil society, to an attitude of integration, in search of a new legitimation, functional to the hegemonic designs not limited within criminal organizations, but extended to politics, to the economy, to institutions.
Entry into existing Masonic lodges or into those set up for the purpose had therefore to constitute the intermediary for that connection with those social classes that traditionally adhered to Freemasonry, that is to say professionals (doctors, lawyers, notaries), entrepreneurs, politicians, representatives of institutions, including magistrates and law enforcement officials. Through this connection, the 'Ndrangheta was able to find not only new opportunities for its own economic investments, but unexpected political outlets and above all that coverage, carried out in various ways and at various levels (misdirections, gaps in investigation, attacks of all kinds against unwilling magistrates , process adjustments, etc.), which has resulted in the substantial impunity that characterized this criminal organization for many years,
Naturally, the inclusion in Freemasonry, which although polluted, still remained a very reserved and exclusive organization, had to be limited to top members of the 'Ndrangheta, and to do this an elite structure had to be created, a new leadership, extraneous. to the traditional hierarchies of "locals", able to move in an unscrupulous way, without the cultural ties of the old honored society.
New rules replaced the traditional ones, which remained in force only for the lower grades and for the naïve, but certainly did not bind personalities like Antonio Nirta or Giorgio De Stefano, who moved with quiet ease among state apparatuses, secret services, subversive groups .
Even the activity of confidant, once a symbol of infamy, was now tolerated and practiced, if it served to establish useful relationships with state representatives or if it served to sidetrack investigative activity towards lesser objectives. And further on: "Rationalizing needs, therefore, which in some way anticipated and prepared those new structures of the 'Ndrangheta that formed the subject of this investigation, but which also responded to the need for' secretation 'of the highest levels of mafia power, in order to remove them from the curiosity of the investigative apparatuses and from the confidences of the lower levels of the organization ».
A LONG RED THREAD
A long red thread therefore unites the 'Ndrangheta and Freemasonry, even if, according to the peaceful conclusions reached by judicial and historical investigations, the mutual interpenetration of the two secret societies was consolidated starting from the second half of the 70s, in singular and not certainly casual consonance with what was happening inside the Cosa Nostra, as the collaborator of justice Leonardo Messina reported before the parliamentary anti-mafia commission: «Many of the men of honor, that is, those who manage to become leaders, belong to the Freemasons. This must not escape the Commission, because it is in Freemasonry that one can have total contacts with entrepreneurs, with institutions, with the men who administer power other than the punitive power that Cosa Nostra has ”.
The issue of how to make the judicial and penal level effective when a hidden dimension of power and its duplicity emerges, therefore, remains open. The conclusions reported so far are reflected in some of the "internal" documents of the 'Ndrangheta.
They refer to the formulas of initiation to the "Saint", the 'ndrangheta structure created in the mid-70s of the last century. The young and ambitious members of the clans could be admitted to it, eager to break the chains of the old bonds of the society of mischief and to compete with the outside world, which offered infinite possibilities of insertion, enrichment, gratification.
There are two elements that appear decisive. The first is the commitment made by the Santists to "renounce the society of sgarro". So the old rules, still valid for all the "common" mafia, no longer apply to the new elite of the 'Ndrangheta.
Santists can get in touch with politicians, administrators, entrepreneurs, notaries, even magistrates and members of the police, if this can be useful for the adjustment of processes, for the diversion of investigations, to establish underground relationships of confidence and of mutual exchange of favors.
Infamy no longer represents an insurmountable barrier, it can be circumvented and overcome in view of the advantages that the network of contacts no longer precluded can ensure. The second important element is constituted by the "triad" of the reference characters chosen for the organization of the "Saint".
No longer the Archangels of the sgarro society - Osso, Mastrosso and Carcagnosso, who came from Spain to Italy after 29 years living in the caves of Favignana - but historical characters, well known in the Italian cultural and political tradition: Garibaldi, Lamarmora, Mazzini. The first two, generals of the Italian army, once, as bearers of uniform in the service of the state, would have been considered "infamous" by definition, par excellence.
How then should such a solemn and explicit reference to such characters be explained? What is the message that you want to send to the people of the 'Ndrangheta through this indication? The answer is clear if we observe how Garibaldi, Lamarmora, Mazzini were all three belonging to Masonic lodges, moreover in top positions (Garibaldi was Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy from 24 May to 8 October 1864) .
ENTRY INTO CIVIL SOCIETY
In short, the 'Ndrangheta transforms itself from a separate body into a component of civil society, into a powerful economic, entrepreneurial, political and electoral lobby. Since then it has become the essential interlocutor, the stone guest, of every business, investment, public works program launched both at a regional and central level, but also of every electoral, administrative and political consultation.
To achieve this result, however, the Santists could not come into "direct" contact with the exponents of the institutions and economic power, at least at the time. Today, probably, all this is possible without mediation, but in that historical phase it was necessary to go through clearing houses, which allowed those contacts the necessary amount of confidentiality, reliability, security. It was the Masonic lodges that offered such a possibility. Certainly not all. Some of the existing ones gave their availability, others were created for the occasion, but certainly the Masonic-Mafia system constituted the formidable tool for integrating the mafias into the dominant power system and capturing the business bourgeoisie.
From then on, the 'Ndrangheta phenomenon appears more and more with the characteristics of a structural component of southern society, and not only, as an "institution among the institutions", as a direct and main actor in development and investment policies, implemented in those areas by the community and national institutions.
For this reason it is likely that the role of Freemasonry, ascertained and necessary in other phases, is largely overcome, at least in the forms known so far.
However, it is necessary to abandon some categories of reading strongly rooted in the culture of the anti-mafia, categories that today appear to be outdated and even an obstacle to a reading suitable for providing analysis tools and above all for contrast capable of having any possible effectiveness. The first category is that of the emergency.
If the 'Ndrangheta has lived and operated since the unification of Italy and if, with the passing of more than a century and a half, it has kept its physiognomy and presence intact, increasing its economic strength and the power of political conditioning, then of emergency in the there is very little of his presence.
Rather, it is a dynamic phenomenon, functional to the current economic-social order and therefore cannot be contrasted only with the usual repressive interventions of a judicial nature. The definition of the mafia as an "antistate", then, is one of those that appear suggestive and captivating but linked to the image of a crime similar to the terrorist phenomenon, that is, intending to demolish the rule of law to replace it.
Faced with a historical phenomenon of this magnitude, not only has there never been a serious, lasting, coherent, political will to carry out a decisive and unshakable counteraction but, on the contrary, there has always been a line ambiguous and contradictory.
A real system of collusion and social and economic mediation has been added to the institutional weaknesses and cultural delays, to the point of determining a level of organicity of mafia interests to the dynamics of society, determining the relative degradation of politics and institutions. The border between the state and the interests of the 'Ndrangheta has thus become increasingly blurred in entire areas of Calabria.
With this strength the 'Ndrangheta has always tried, when it had the opportunity, to cross the area of ??its own settlement.
Its being "local" - not surprisingly the self-definition of its central organized structure - has never been considered a cage or a limitation to its mafia action, it has instead represented a launching pad towards other geographical, economic and social territories - in which to establish relationships in which to develop new criminal activities.
https://www.editorialedomani.it/fat...mento-garibaldi-mazzini-marmora-wxou8srj