C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 NAPLES 000069
SIPDIS
TREASURY FOR OFAC
E.O. 12958: DECL: 6/15/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL KCRM ECON SNAR MARR KCOR IT
SUBJECT: SICILY: REGIONAL GOVERNMENT IN TURMOIL WHILE THE MAFIA IS
DOWN, BUT NOT OUT
REF: A) 08 NAPLES 38, B) 08 NAPLES 9, C) ROME 600, D) NAPLES 64
NAPLES 00000069 001.2 OF 005
CLASSIFIED BY: J. Patick Truhn, Consul General, AmConGen Naples.
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d)
1. (C) Summary: As host to an important U.S. Navy base,location of recently discovered gas reserves, and home to 17,000 U.S. citizens, Sicily's future is clearly of interest to the United States. For now, political feuding has replaced the war on organized crime in the headlines: Regional President Raffaele Lombardo dissolved the regional cabinet on May 25 after months of tensions with his coalition partner, Prime Minister Berlusconi's party. The rocky relations between Palermo and Rome have resulted in Berlusconi's blockage of four billion euros in EU structural funds for the region. Political grandstanding blocked an American gas drilling operation last year, and threatens to at least delay an important U.S. Navy satellite communications system. However, the major challenge to economic development remains the Mafia, which may well be the principal beneficiary if the bridge over the Strait of Messina, talked about for centuries, is eventually built. A variety of
interlocutors in several Sicilian cities told us during recent visits that the grip of organized crime has loosened through a combination of law enforcement success and civil society rebellion against the Cosa Nostra. Anti-Mafia prosecutors are optimistic they can continue to make progress against the mob, but note that ongoing budgetary and personnel constraints (particularly the difficulty in filling magistrate positions) hamper their effectiveness.