September 30, 2020
Rosetta Ingargiola, mother of Pietro, one of the fishermen of Mazara del Vallo kidnapped and imprisoned by the Libyans last September 1st, shakes the Palace with a sensational protest awaiting news from Giuseppe Conte and Luigi di Maio. His son Pietro was arrested and kidnapped last September by the Libyans of Benghazi along with 18 other fishermen from Mazara del Vallo who had gone in search of shrimp with four boats. Since then, mother Rosetta Ingargiola has been fighting like a lioness with the Italian authorities to save Pietro and all the others and bring them back to Sicily with their fishing boats. “He is my only child”, she repeats as if over and over, feeling moved, because the sea 24 years ago had already taken another fisherman away from her. General Haftar’s men have all arrested them on the false accusation of drug trafficking, and are holding them in prison as a “bargaining chip” with four Libyan smugglers arrested in Italy for a shipwreck in 2015. Pietro only had the allowed to make a phone call to mom to prove she’s alive. For days and days Rosetta has stationed under the Farnesina trying to get news on the negotiation together with other family members. In the end she was received at Palazzo Chigi by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and by the Foreign Minister, Luigi di Maio, who reassured her of the interest of the Italian government. But for her it is not enough: “I trust and I do not trust”. He would like to see evidence on the health of his son and others, and also some certainty about a happy ending to the story: after all, Italy had received Haftar in Rome and should have a direct channel with the Libyan general discussed. This is why Rosetta did not return home to Mazara del Vallo, and together with other fishermen’s wives she chained herself in front of Montecitorio where she wants to wait for direct news from the premier about her Pietro and the other fishermen. A courageous and dramatic choice that only a mother like her could make … (by Franco Bechis and Francesco Storace)
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