There are dates that inevitably change a country. Which remain sculpted, which weigh like boulders. May 23, 1992 is one of those. That day, the day of the Massacre of Capaci, the conscience of Italy woke up. As the roar split the sky, Italy lost Giovanni Falcone. And the mafia was advancing a pawn.
Massacre of Capaci, what happened
On 23 May 1992, near Capaci, a car bomb containing 500 kilos of TNT broke the road. It was to place it Cosa Nostra, to delete the anti-mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone. At 17.57, that stretch of the A29 killed Falcone, his wife Frances Morvillo and escort agents Vito Schifani, Rocco Dicillo and Antonio Montinaro. Twenty-three other people were injured. Lives swallowed at the behest of the Cosa Nostra, and its boss Salvatore “Totò” Riina. Lives torn in retaliation, to take revenge for the life sentences inflicted with Maxiprocess of January 30, 1992. The task of killing with explosives was given to John Brusca, nicknamed Christian slaughterers because of its ferocity.
That 23 May, Giovanni Falcone boarded a jet at Rome Ciampino. Like every weekend he returned to Palermo. At the Punta Raisi airport he found three armored Fiat Croma with the men of the escort. He boarded his white Croma with his wife Francesca and Giuseppe Costanza. And he started driving. As he always did, as he could no longer do. A tunnel dug under the road was there waiting for him, with that explosive manufactured by human wickedness. The brown Chroma in front of him blew up, instantly killing the three agents. His car, on the other hand, crashed into a wall of concrete and debris. Falcone died in an ambulance due to the reported Craunic plot, his wife expired in hospital. Costanza, on the other hand, remained unharmed.
The commemorations
"Turning to the men of the mafia (...) know that for you too there is a possibility of forgiveness: I forgive you, but you must get down on your knees, if you have the courage to change ... But they don't change ... They don't want to change ... We ask you for the city of Palermo, Lord, you have made a city of blood, too much blood, of work for peace, justice, hope and love for all ": so spoke, on the day of the funeral, the wife of agent Schifani. Words that rang out in the church, on televisions, in the minds of all of Italy. An Italy that has not forgotten and that, every May 23, takes to the streets to remember.
In this 2021, the fourth will be held in Palermo from 13 to 23 May virtual edition of the Race for Memory. Everyone can run their race wherever they want, to dedicate it to the victims of the Capaci and via D'Amelio massacres. Remembering the path traveled by anti-mafia heroes, a path of courage, honesty and legality. And to look to tomorrow with optimism. “We asked some of the major Italian artists to contribute to the creation of a special program of urban interventions, in the symbolic places of civil redemption against the mafias " commented instead Maria Falcone, president of the Giovanni Falcone Foundation and sister of the judge. Telling a social design project that will be inaugurated on May 23, 2021 and that will be completed in 2023. Thus continuing that idea started with the painting by Falcone, at number 107 of via Duca Della Verdura.
Painted by the artist from Palermo Andrea Buglisi, the mural by Falcone is located above the Bunker room of the Ucciardone in Palermo, where the Maxiprocesso was staged. And he portrays the judge with a reassuring look. Nearby, a second mural will soon see the light, with the face of Paolo Borsellino, to form the diptych "The door of the Giants". Because they really were, two giants. And their memory will be giant.
