Salvatore Lima - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Salvatore Lima was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

from Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

who was murdered by the Mafia

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

. He is often just referred to as Salvo Lima.

Lima’s father was a mafioso, but it is not known whether he himself was a "made member

Made man

A made man, also known as a Mafioso , made guy, man of honor, or uomo d'onore , is someone who has been officially inducted into the Sicilian or American Mafia . They may also be referred to by some as a goodfella or wiseguy...

" of Cosa Nostra. In the final report of the first Italian Antimafia Commission

Antimafia Commission

The Italian Antimafia Commission is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate . The Antimafia Commission is a commission of inquiry into, initially, the “phenomenon of the Mafia”...

(1963–1976) Lima was described as one of the pillars of Mafia power in Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

.

During his long career with the Christian Democrat

Christian Democracy (Italy)

Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....

party (DC - Democrazia Cristiana) that began in the 1950s, Lima was first allied with the faction of Amintore Fanfani

Amintore Fanfani

Amintore Fanfani was an Italian career politician and the 33rd man to serve the office of Prime Minister of the State. He was one of the well-known Italian politicians after the Second World War, and a historical figure of the Christian Democracy .Fanfani and Giovanni Giolitti are still actually...

and after 1964 with the one of Giulio Andreotti

Giulio Andreotti

Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...

, seven times prime minister and a member of almost every post-war Italian government. That shift earned him a seat in the national parliament in 1968.

Lima was often referred to as Andreotti’s "proconsul

Proconsul

A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...

" on Sicily. Under Andreotti Lima once held a cabinet post. At the time of his death he was a member of the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

. Lima rarely spoke in public or campaigned during elections but usually he would manage to gain large support from seemingly nowhere when it came to voting day.

Mayor of Palermo

From 1958 to 1963 Salvo Lima was mayor of Palermo and fellow Christian Democrat Vito Ciancimino

Vito Ciancimino

Vito Ciancimino was an Italian politician who served as mayor of Palermo, Sicily. He belonged to the Christian Democrat party , and was the first Italian politician to be found guilty of Mafia membership...

assessor for public works. Between 1951 and 1961 the population of Palermo had risen by 100,000. Under Lima and Ciancimino an unprecedented construction boom hit the city. They supported Mafia-allied building contractors such as Palermo’s leading construction entrepreneur Francesco Vassallo – a former cart driver hauling sand and stone in a poor district of Palermo. Vassallo was connected to mafiosi like Angelo La Barbera

Angelo La Barbera

Angelo La Barbera was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Together with his brother Salvatore La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro...

and Tommaso Buscetta

Tommaso Buscetta

Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...

. In five years, over 4,000 building licences were signed, more than half of them in the names of three pensioners who had no connection with construction at all.

This period was later referred to as the "Sack of Palermo

Sack of Palermo

The Sack of Palermo or scempio in Italian is the popular term for the construction boom from the 1950s through the mid 1980s that led to the destruction of the city's green belt and villas that gave it architectural grace, to make way for characterless and shoddily constructed apartment blocks...

" because the construction boom led to the destruction of the city's green belt, and villas that gave it architectural grace, to make way for characterless and shoddily constructed apartment blocks. In the meantime Palermo’s historical centre was allowed to crumble. In 1964, during an investigation, Lima had to admit that he knew Angelo La Barbera

Angelo La Barbera

Angelo La Barbera was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Together with his brother Salvatore La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro...

, one of Palermo's most powerful mobsters. Lima's election was supported by the La Barbera clan. From 1965-1968 Lima again was mayor of Palermo.

Lima arranged an unusually lucrative concession to collect taxes in Sicily to Antonio Salvo

Antonio Salvo

Antonio Nino Salvo and his cousin Ignazio Salvo were two wealthy businessmen from the town of Salemi in the province of Trapani. They had strong political connections with the Christian Democrat party , in particular with the former mayor of Palermo, Salvo Lima, and Giulio Andreotti...

and Ignazio Salvo, two wealthy mafia-cousins from the town of Salemi

Salemi

Salemi is a town and comune in South-Western Sicily, Italy, administratively part of the province of Trapani. It is located in the Belice Valley.-History:...

in the province of Trapani

Trapani

Trapani is a city and comune on the west coast of Sicily in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands.-History:...

, in exchange for their loyalty to Salvo Lima and the Andreotti faction of the DC. The Salvo’s were allowed 10 percent of the take – three times as much as the national average of 3.3 percent.

Early Mafia connections

According to the "pentito

Pentito

Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...

" (Mafia defector) Tommaso Buscetta

Tommaso Buscetta

Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...

, Lima’s father, Vincenzo Lima, was a "man of honour" of the Palermo Centro Mafia family that was led by Salvatore and Angelo La Barbera

Angelo La Barbera

Angelo La Barbera was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Together with his brother Salvatore La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro...

of which Buscetta's family – the Porta Nuova Mafia family – was part as well. The La Barbera brothers helped Salvo Lima getting elected. Buscetta himself met Salvo Lima many times and they became good friends. Every year Lima provided Buscetta with tickets for the Teatro Massimo

Teatro Massimo

The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It was dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II....

in Palermo.

At the time, the public and authorities did not know these connections. Buscetta only revealed facts about the relations between mafiosi and politicians after judge Giovanni Falcone

Giovanni Falcone

Giovanni Falcone was an Sicilian/Italian prosecuting magistrate born in Palermo, Sicily. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Mafia in Sicily...

was killed in 1992. However, already in 1964 one of Falcone’s predecessors, judge Cesare Terranova

Cesare Terranova

Cesare Terranova was a magistrate and politician from Sicily notable for his anti-Mafia stance. From 1958 until 1971 Terranova was an examining magistrate at the Palermo prosecuting office. He was one of the first to seriously investigate the Mafia and the financial operations of Cosa Nostra. He...

, unequivocally demonstrated Lima’s connections with the La Barberas. In an indictment in 1964, Terranova wrote: "it is clear that Angelo and Salvatore La Barbera (well-known bosses in the Palermo area) ... knew former mayor Salvatore Lima and maintained relations in such a way as to ask for favours. ... The undeniable contacts of the La Barbera mafiosi with the one who was the first citizen of Palermo ... constitute a confirmation of ... the infiltration of the Mafia in several sectors of public life." Nevertheless, Lima was allowed to continue in politics as if nothing had happened.

Alliance with Andreotti

In 1968 Lima was elected to the Chamber of Deputies

Italian Chamber of Deputies

The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...

(Italian: Camera dei Deputati), suddenly surpassing established politicians in Sicily. The alliance between Lima and Andreotti proved beneficial to both. Although Andreotti had a strong electoral base in and around Rome, his faction had no power base in the rest of Italy. With Lima – who at some time controlled 25 percent of all party members in Sicily – the Andreotti faction turned into a truly national group. While Andreotti had been an important government minister before his alliance with Lima, he now became one of the most powerful politicians in Italy. Andreotti became prime minister for the first time in 1972. In 1974 Lima became Under-Secretary of the Budget. In 1979 Lima was elected in the European Parliament.

In 1981, Palermo witnessed the outbreak of a bloody Mafia war. A new dominant group within the Mafia, headed by Salvatore (Totò) Riina, of Corleone, killed and replaced the traditional bosses of Palermo and their associates. The Corleonesi also turned against state representatives and politicians, such as the communist senator Pio La Torre

Pio La Torre

Pio La Torre was a leader of the Italian Communist Party...

, the Carabinieri general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa

Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa

Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was a general of the Italian carabinieri notable for campaigning against terrorism during the 1970s in Italy, and later assassinated by the Mafia in Palermo.-Biography:...

who had been appointed as the prefect of Palermo to fight the Mafia, and Rocco Chinnici

Rocco Chinnici

Rocco Chinnici was a noted Italian Antimafia magistrate killed by the Mafia.-Life:Born at Misilmeri, Chinnici graduated in law at the University of Palermo in 1947 and started working as a magistrate in 1952 in Trapani. In 1966 he moved to the prosecutors office in Palermo...

, chief prosecutor in Palermo.

A mounting public outcry demanded the Christian Democrats to clean up its house in Sicily. The mayor of Palermo, one of Lima's protégés, was forced to resign, and Andreotti's Sicilian faction was on the defensive. At the Maxi Trial

Maxi Trial

The Maxi Trial was a criminal trial that took place in Sicily during the mid-1980s that saw hundreds of defendants on trial convicted for a multitude of crimes relating to Mafia activities, based primarily on testimony given in as evidence from a former boss turned informant...

against the Mafia in the mid 1980s, two of Lima's closest allies, the cousins Nino and Ignazio Salvo, were convicted of being Mafia members. When Lima was in Sicily he was chauffeured around in a bulletproof car of the Salvo’s. Lima himself, however, never became the target of criminal investigation, because of reluctance on the part of both witnesses and prosecutors.

Mafia supergrass Tommaso Buscetta

Tommaso Buscetta

Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...

, whose testimonies as a collaborating witness during the Maxi Trial

Maxi Trial

had been instrumental to convict many Mafia bosses, refused to talk about the relationship between Cosa Nostra and politicians. He told Giovanni Falcone

Giovanni Falcone

one of the prosecutors at the Maxi Trial: "I have told you repeatedly that I would not discuss it until and if the time is ripe. It would be extremely foolish to discuss this subject - which is the crucial knot of the Mafia problem - while the very people whom we would be discussing remain fully active on the political scene."

The Court of Cassation (court of final appeal) ruled in October 2004 that Andreotti had "friendly and even direct ties" with top men in the so-called moderate wing of Cosa Nostra, Stefano Bontade

Stefano Bontade

Stefano Bontade was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Some sources spell his surname Bontate. He was the capomafia of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo...

and Gaetano Badalamenti

Gaetano Badalamenti

Gaetano Badalamenti was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Don Tano Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s...

, favoured by the connection between them and Salvo Lima.

Killed by the Mafia

On March 12, 1992, 64-year-old Salvo Lima was on his way to Palermo in his chauffeur driven car when his tires were shot out by a gunman on a motorcycle. After his car screeched to a halt, Lima scrambled out and attempted to flee, but the assassin got off the motorbike, shot Lima in the back and then ran over and finished him off with a bullet to the neck. The killer then sped away.

The killing took place three weeks before Italy's national election, billed as a watershed in Italian politics. The murder of Lima meant a turning point in the relations between the Mafia and its reference points in politics. The Mafia felt betrayed by Lima and Andreotti. In their opinion they had failed to block the confirmation of the sentence of the Maxi Trial

Maxi Trial

by the Court of Cassation (court of final appeal) in January 1992, which upheld the Buscetta theorem that Cosa Nostra was a single hierarchical organisation ruled by a Commission

Sicilian Mafia Commission

The Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra...

and that its leaders could be held responsible for criminal acts that were committed to benefit the organisation.

The Mafia had counted on Lima and Andreotti to appoint Corrado Carnevale

Corrado Carnevale

Corrado Carnevale is an Italian judge, currently member of the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation. He became famous because of the large number of Mafia cases overturned in the Appeal Court where he was president, because of his involvement in some of the worst corruption scandals in the history...

to review the sentence. Carnevale, known as "the sentence killer", had overturned many Mafia convictions on the slenderest of technicalities previously. Carnevale, however, had to withdraw due to pressure from the public and from Giovanni Falcone

Giovanni Falcone

– who at the time had moved to the ministry of Justice. Falcone was backed by the minister of Justice Claudio Martelli

Claudio Martelli

Claudio Martelli is an Italian politician, and the right-hand man of Bettino Craxi, the socialist Prime Minister from 1983–1987.-Biography:Martelli was born at Gessate, in the province of Milan....

despite the fact that he served under Prime Minister Andreotti.

Many Mafia bosses were condemned to life in prison and Cosa Nostra reacted furiously. Apart from killing Lima in March 1992, Mafia killers blew up Giovanni Falcone, his wife, and three bodyguards in May. In July, a second car bomb killed Falcone's colleague and close friend Paolo Borsellino

Paolo Borsellino

Paolo Borsellino was an Italian anti-Mafia magistrate who was killed by a Mafia car bomb in Palermo, less than two months after his fellow anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone had been assassinated....

, along with five bodyguards. In September the Mafia murdered Ignazio Salvo, the prominent Mafia businessman who had been close to Lima.

Tommaso Buscetta

Tommaso Buscetta

Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...

, moved by the deaths of Falcone and Borsellino, decided to break his long silence on ties between politics and Cosa Nostra. He acknowledged that he had known Lima since the late 1950s. On November 16, 1992, Buscetta testified before the Antimafia Commission

Antimafia Commission

presided by Luciano Violante

Luciano Violante

Luciano Violante is an Italian judge and politician, Member of Parliament since 1979. He is particularly interested in questions of justice, the struggle against the Mafia and institutional reform.-Biography:...

about the links between Cosa Nostra and Salvo Lima and Giulio Andreotti

Giulio Andreotti

. He indicated Salvo Lima as the contact of the Mafia in Italian politics. "Salvo Lima was, in fact, the politician to whom Cosa Nostra turned most often to resolve problems for the organisation whose solution lay in Rome," Buscetta testified. Other collaborating witnesses confirmed that Lima had been specifically ordered to "fix" the appeal of the Maxi Trial

Maxi Trial

with Italy's Court of Cassation and had been murdered because he failed to do so.

"I knew that for any problems requiring a solution in Rome, Lima was the man we turned to," according to another pentito Gaspare Mutolo

Gaspare Mutolo

Gaspare Mutolo is a Sicilian mafioso, also known as "Asparino". In 1992 he became a pentito . He was the first mafioso who spoke about the connections between Cosa Nostra and Italian politicians...

. "Lima was killed because he did not uphold or couldn’t uphold, the commitments he had made in Palermo (…) The verdict of the Supreme Court was disaster. After the Supreme Court verdict we felt we were lost. That verdict was like a dose of poison for the mafiosi, who felt like wounded animals. That’s why they carried out the massacres. Something had to happen. I was surprised when people who had eight years of a prison sentence still to serve started giving themselves up. Then they killed Lima and I understood." According to Mutolo, "Lima was killed because he was the greatest symbol of that part of the political world which, after doing favours for Cosa Nostra in exchange for its votes, was no longer able to protect the interests of the organisation at the time of its most important trial."

Legacy

Most sources regard the allegations of Lima being tied to the Mafia as true, although it must be pointed out that he was never formally charged or convicted of such allegations. In 1993 the Antimafia Commission

Antimafia Commission

led by senator Luciano Violante

Luciano Violante

concluded that there were strong indications of relations between Lima and members of Cosa Nostra.

"Lima became the prisoner of a system," according to the pentito

Pentito

Leonardo Messina

Leonardo "Narduzzo" Messina is a former Sicilian mafioso who became a government informant or "pentito" in 1992. His testimony led to the arrest of over 200 mafiosi during the so-called "Operation Leopard"...

. "Before this latest generation, being a friend of mafiosi was easy for everybody… It was a great honour for a mafioso to have a member of parliament at a wedding or a baptism… When a mafioso saw a parliamentarian he would take of his hat and offer him a seat." With the rise of power of the Corleonesi

Corleonesi

The Corleonesi is the name given to a faction within the Sicilian Mafia that dominated Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and the 1990s. It was called the Corleonesi because its most important leaders came from the town of Corleone, first Luciano Leggio and later Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and Leoluca...

this changed profoundly. "Now, it has become an imposition: do this or else," Messina said.

In July 1998, a number of powerful Mafiosi, including Corleonesi

Corleonesi

boss Salvatore Riina

Salvatore Riina

Salvatore "Totò" Riina is a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organization in the early 1980s. Fellow mobsters nicknamed him The Beast due to his violent nature, or sometimes The Short One due to his diminutive stature...

and Giuseppe Calò

Giuseppe Calò

Giuseppe 'Pippo' Calò is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was referred to as the "Mafia's Cashier" because he was heavily involved in the financial side of organized crime, primarily money laundering....

, were convicted of ordering Lima's murder. In April 2001 the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence of Riina and some of the actual killers, but did not uphold the sentences for other members of the Mafia Commission because individual responsibility could not be established, thus challenging the Buscetta theorem.

External links

Salvatore Lima's European Parliament page
All the Prime Minister’s men by Alexander Stille, The Independent on Sunday, September 24, 1995 (article on Andreotti, Lima and other political figures) Sentenza Cassazione omicidio Lima

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