Antonio Salvo

Antonio Nino Salvo (July 14, 1929 – January 19, 1986) and his cousin Ignazio Salvo (1932 – September 17, 1992) were two wealthy businessmen from the town of Salemi in the province of Trapani. They had strong political connections with the Christian Democrat party (DC - Democrazia Cristiana), in particular with the former mayor of Palermo, Salvo Lima, and Giulio Andreotti. At the Maxi Trial against the Mafia in the mid-1980s, they were convicted of being Mafia members.

Salvo Lima arranged an unusually lucrative concession to collect taxes in Sicily for the Salvo cousins island (tax collection was contracted out by the government), in exchange for their loyalty to Lima and the Andreotti faction of the DC. The Salvos were allowed 10 percent of the take – three times as much as the national average of 3.3 percent. Subsequently, the Salvos expanded their economic activity to many other areas such agribusiness (lavishly subsidised by the European Union and Italian government) and tourism. They owned the Zagarella Hotel complex in Santa Flavia, near Palermo.

In 1958, the Salvo cousins as well as the old Mafia families of Greco and Bontade backed the regional Sicilian government of Silvio Milazzo, an atypical coalition government that was supported by Communists, Monarchists, Neo-Fascists and dissident Christian Democrats. The government was formed in protest against infringement on Sicilian autonomy and threat to Sicilian patronage by the DC party headquarters in Rome. During that time they acquired the private concession for collecting taxes in Sicily with extremely favourable conditions. To consolidate the privilege, the Salvos unscrupulously withdrew their support for Milazzo to ally themselves with the mainstream Christian Democrats which tried to regain control of the region to maintain their cliental power base.

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