AI-generated transcript, reviewed and corrected by Jacques Bertrand. Timestamps refer to the original audio.

[00:02] Italians resisting the Mafia their courage, our inspiration. This is the Omerta Overcomers Podcast with Jacques Bertrand.

[00:21] Beatrice, welcome back. In 2024, 4,000 people were out demonstrating in Isola Capo Rizzuto. That’s a small town in Calabria. They weren’t protesting the police, the government or things like climate change. They were marching against the mafia, the ‘ndrangheta. They carried banners that said “No Mafia, No ‘ndrangheta.” This was in reaction to a series of arson attacks against local businesses. The population had had enough. This is where the idea for today’s story came from.

[01:01] Business as unusual. Breaking free from extortion. The story of Valeria.

[01:09] Imagine this, Beatrice. Let’s say you’re Valeria. Just a name. You run a construction business. You own heavy machinery. You do roads and other public works. It’s your dad who started the company but he passed away two months ago. The company is doing well with 50 to 100 employees working in different municipalities. The Mafia loves this kind of business. It’s perfect for them: public contracts, money laundering, influence over jobs and elections… Valeria knows this. Her own company, they never had problems, but that’s precisely because her dad paid 5,000 euros cash every month plus another 5,000 at Christmas. Basically, he funded the criminals. She found out about it only yesterday when a man came to the office. Valeria said she was unaware of these payments. He spelled it out for her. They hadn’t received payment for three months. He said, “Friday someone will come to pick up the cash, and it’s now 10,000 per month plus 50,000 for the months you didn’t pay.” Before leaving, he added one more thing: “I’ve got a nephew who’s looking for work. He’d be very good at driving one of your machines. Buona sera.” Inside, Valeria is fuming, paying the mafia, hiring their people… Maybe her dad was paying but it’s her company now!

[02:38] But… breaking away from the ‘ndrangheta? That’s scary. At dinner that night, Valeria barely speaks. Her husband Paolo asks, “What’s wrong?” “Nothing,” she says. Paolo is a good man, but very different from her. And always so cautious. He sells insurance. She can imagine him saying, “You have no choice, Valeria. Just pay. Your dad started it. Keep things as they are.” That’s not what she wants to hear.

[03:09] The next day, Valeria visits Roberto, a long-time family friend. He owns a trattoria. “Roberto, someone from the ‘ndrangheta came by yesterday. Dad was paying the pizzo. Now they’re asking for more money and they want me to add one of their people on my payroll. What should I do?” Roberto sighs, “You don’t really have a choice, Valeria. Your father paid. Changing things now could be very dangerous.” “But it’s immoral. We’re just feeding the Mafia,” Valeria protests. “Everyone pays the pizzo,” Roberto replies. “Ask around.” “Do you pay it too, Roberto?” He answers, “I’ve got a family, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to my trattoria.” At the end Roberto tells her, “Go talk to Don Cosimo, the parish priest. He stands up to these bastardi.” Valeria finds Don Cosimo on a piece of land just outside town. “This field used to belong to a local ‘ndrangheta boss,” Cosimo explains. “He was arrested, the land was seized, and now a co-op grows oranges and bergamots here.” This is Valeria’s first time meeting Don Cosimo. She tells him, “Around here everyone knows you are the loudest voice against the ‘ndrangheta.” Don Cosimo shrugs, “I didn’t choose it. Life puts you in tough spots. You act according to your values and what you want for your community.” She describes her situation. Cosimo asks, “So what do you want to do?” Valeria says, “That’s why I’m here. I don’t know.” “If you pay, they’ll keep asking for more. That’s how it works. If you don’t pay, things get hard. There will be threats, probably some retaliation. But you’re a major employer here, Valeria. If you choose to resist, people will notice. It could be the start of something good. You know, almost every week someone’s car is burned or they find a dead animal at their door. But people in Calabria want change.” After two hours with Don Cosimo, Valeria heads home. And then it’s another sleepless night. Paolo snores next to her, but that’s not the reason. At 2 in the morning she gets up and searches stories about the pizzo, people who paid, others who refused and lost everything. She stumbles onto the story of Tiberio Bentivoglio, a man under pressure from the ‘ndrangheta since 1992. He’s been through hell. But he’s still standing. With Tiberio Bentivoglio, one word stuck in her mind: dignity. Valeria turns off the laptop and goes back to bed. Now she knows what she’s gonna do. When Valeria wakes up Thursday, she’s not as determined as she was a few hours before. She chats with Paolo about the day ahead, but still says nothing to him about the Mafia’s request. She looks around at her beautiful house, the trees, the flowers, her comfortable life built by her dad who always paid the pizzo. Maybe despite all the nice things Don Cosimo said, maybe paying off the mafia isn’t so bad? Maybe that’s just how things work. Lots of people do it and seem okay. Valeria is now tempted to pay. She gets in her Stelvio, turns on RDS and Claudio Guerrini makes her laugh. She feels relaxed. Today will be fine. She heads to work. Halfway there, a black car suddenly cuts her off, forcing her to come to a stop. Two strangers get out and come to both sides of her car. One is knocking on her window. “They’re gonna kill me,” she thinks. “We’ve got something to tell you,” one yells. She rolls down the window. “Signora, you’re driving with two flat tires.” The man on the other side of the car is showing a knife. “You should be careful. It’s better to stay safe,” he says.

[07:23] Valeria is shaken. She calls for help and waits by the road, wondering, “This happened before I even gave them my answer.” How did they know? Maybe she was seen visiting Don Cosimo. Maybe Roberto from the restaurant told them. Suddenly, her world feels darker. Can she simply go back to how things were two days ago?

[07:56] Friday at the office, all day she expects the ‘ndrangheta messenger. Late afternoon, a young man arrives on a scooter. “Buona sera, you’ve got something from me.” Valeria says, “No, I’ve got nothing for you. And you can tell those who sent you that I won’t be intimidated.”

[08:15] At dinner Paolo is upset, very upset, for two reasons. First, because she’s only telling him now about the pizzo. Second, because she said NO to the ‘ndrangheta. “Are you crazy? You’re endangering all of us right now.” Valeria replies, “These bastards will not intimidate me, and I won’t be bullied by anyone.” The way she said ‘anyone’ is clear enough for Paolo. There’s never been such tension between those two. As soon as she can, Valeria sees Don Cosimo, the only person she feels she can trust at this point. He takes her to the Carabinieri and they organize a meeting with the new anti-Mafia prosecutor. Like everyone else in Calabria, she’s heard of Nicola Gratteri, the famous anti-Mafia prosecutor who sent hundreds of mafiosi to jail. Gratteri now works in Campania, but he and others have shown that the State is present now in Calabria, no longer leaving the field wide open to the ‘ndrangheta. Valeria also talks with the mayor of her town, a woman who has faced intimidation many times before, just like municipal employees, just like Don Cosimo, and just like other business owners like her. They held a press conference to highlight business people who refused to pay the pizzo. They hope it will become a movement. Sometimes these initiatives succeed and take off, sometimes they just fizzle out. But there’s always something to build upon. And for them anyway, doing nothing isn’t an option. Three weeks later, nothing has happened to Valeria. There’s been no reaction from the ‘ndrangheta. “I’m not surprised,” explains Don Cosimo. “They believe time is on their side. We made some noise. Now they are pondering what they’re going to do next. There’s a good part of the community that is now standing up to them, including you, Valeria. The ‘ndrangheta can intimidate, but it also likes to preserve a level of consensus among the population. It’s bad for their ambitions if public opinion turns against them and they lose their allies within society. They too need to consider their moves. When we stick together, it’s the only way we can dream of defeating the Mafia.” Valeria says, “I really appreciate all that solidarity, Don Cosimo, but right now I’m feeling like a penguin.” “What do you mean?” “You know how penguins survive blizzards? They huddle together in a big group. The ones on the outside face the worst of the cold, but they rotate to the inside to get warm. It’s tough, but they stick together and make sure everyone gets a chance to be safe. Right now,” says Valeria, “I feel like I’m on the outside.” Cosimo replies, “I know exactly how that feels, believe me. Remember these two points: one, we’re in this together; two, changing the culture of silence and fear, the Omerta, is a gradual process, and every small victory contributes to a larger transformation.”

[11:53] In the beginning I talked about the march against the ‘ndrangheta in the town of Isola Capo Rizzuto. This wasn’t the first rally against the Mafia in Italy, far from that, but it signals a powerful message. Ordinary citizens in Calabria are fed up with the ‘ndrangheta’s grip on their lives. And to name just a few of these omerta overcomers: Filippo Callipo and his fish processing plants. Herbert Catalano and his construction business. Domenico Morano, who makes hardware solutions for self-service applications like ATMs, Antonino De Masi, another businessman under police protection who is fighting for all business owners in Calabria. And of course, there are many others. Thank you for listening, Beatrice. Don’t forget to check out my website omertaovercomers.ca.

[12:56] We’re grateful for your presence today. For more information, check out our website at omertaovercomers.ca. Feel free to connect with Jacques at MyReaction@protonmail.com

[13:13] And please, spread the word by sharing this episode with two or three people. We appreciate you. A presto.