What does «Camorra» mean in Spanish?
- A secret society that emerged in southern Italy as a brotherhood of political prisoners around 1830 during the reign of the Bourbons in Naples. It was composed of patibularios, and was mainly dedicated to extortion, smuggling, banditry and violence. Its members were united by a rigorous discipline imposed by a hierarchy of officers and judges and by the oath to keep their activities secret. In the absence of an adequate police force in the chaotic situation of the time, merchants and even public officials sought the protection of the camorristas. Ordered suppressed by Ferdinand II, the society tended to support the growing movement for the unification of Italy and, once that unity was achieved in 1860, assumed the appearance of a political party, which came to hold the municipal government of Naples until the corruption of its methods provoked the intervention of the Italian government in 1899. Members of the society brutally murdered in 1906 Gennaro Cuocolo and his wife, camorrist agents, suspected of having betrayed one of their comrades. As a result, 41 people were arrested and in 1912, after a sensational trial that lasted more than a year and in which more than 600 witnesses were present, all the accused were found guilty. This was the coup de grace for society. Nevertheless, criminal gangs similar to the Camorra continued to operate in Naples, although, since 1984, the confessions of some "repentant" Camorra bosses have led to the dismantling of part of the infrastructure that had developed again since the 1960s. Compared to the neighboring mafias, the Sacra corona unita and the Ndrangheta, the Camorra is more focused on piracy.