Assassination of Aldo Moro
Kidnapping should be considered as one form of terrorism.
President Saleh of the Yemen
The use of kidnapping and the taking of hostages usually attracts a lot of media interest, which in the eye of the terrorist means that he is in a better position for bargaining. Although it is harder to plan the kidnap of someone in a prominent position due to the amount of security surrounding that person, if the kidnap is successful the terrorist group can demand money, release of imprisoned comrades and publicity for their cause for a long period of time. The main aim of the terrorist in a kidnapping is not the hostage himself, but the audience that it attracts.
The Red Brigades
The Red Brigades are a militant Communist group based in Italy, who formed in 1970 and advocated violence in the pursuit of class warfare. It has been recorded that throughout the 1970s the leftist group committed more than 14,000 acts of violence.
In 1978, the Red Brigade’s target was Aldo Moro, a major political figure, and the five-times prime minister of Italy. Moro was a great political mediator and an important leader of the then all-powerful Christian Democrats (Democrazia Christiana). Moro had a very powerful influence on Italian politics even though he held no public office, and he was one of the men who helped in forming Italy’s government of national solidarity.
The Kidnap
Aldo Moro was kidnapped on March 16, 1978, on his way to parliament in his blue Fiat 130. He was a man of routine, and his established pattern of going to church at the same time every morning made it easy for his kidnappers to know where he would be at a certain time. Inside the car were also Moro’s bodyguard and chauffer, and they were followed by another car carrying three police bodyguards. As the two cars approached a road junction, a car showing diplomatic licence plates pulled in front of the Fiat and stopped abruptly. Moro’s chauffeur had to jam on his brakes so sharply, the security car behind went into the back of the Fiat. Both the driver and passenger of the car that had stopped in front of them climbed out as if to check for damage. The two men approached Moro’s car from both sides, and as they came in line with the windows they pulled out pistols and shot the driver and the security guard sitting in the front seat. Both men died instantly.
Four men dressed in Air Alitalia uniforms were standing at the junction. As they heard the shooting they crossed over the road to the cars, pulled automatic rifles out of their flight bags, and shot at the security guards in the follow-up car. Two of the guards died straight away, while the third one rolled out of the car onto the street. He bravely managed to fire three shots before being killed by a fatal shot from a sniper positioned on a roof overlooking the street.
Aldo Moro was driven away and taken to a secret location. Then one of the members of the Red Brigades made a telephone call to a newspaper office based in Rome, informing them that they had kidnapped the 61-year-old Christian Democratic leader. His words were:
We kidnapped Aldo Moro. He is only our first victim. We shall hit at the heart of the state.
Following the shock of the kidnap of such a prominent figure, the Italian security forces made literally hundreds of raids in the cities of Rome, Milan and Turin, but nothing turned up. For the entire two months that Moro was missing, the kidnappers kept him locked in a hidden closet in an apartment. While the entire country was out looking for this man, it appeared he was being held in an apartment in Rome, not far from where he lived.
As soon as the news spread of his kidnap, leaders of the trade unions called a 24-hour general strike, which left many of the shops and offices in Rome closed. Meanwhile the Italian police and army continued to scour the country looking in every possible nook and cranny where Moro could be imprisoned. Still they did not come up with any solid clues.
Negotiations
The members of the Red Brigades used Moro as their lever for the freedom of imprisoned terrorists, but the Italian government took a hard rule in the negotiations, stating that they were not prepared to bend at all on the terrorists’ requests. The government claimed that if they gave in to their demands it would not only undermine the state it could also throw Italy into an immediate state of chaos.
During his period of captivity Moro wrote letters to the principal leaders of the Christian Democrats and also to Pope Paul VI apparently pleading with them to negotiate with his captors. He made it clear that their prime intention should be the saving of lives, but still the government refused to budge.
The government arranged secret talks with the Red Brigades, but the talks led them nowhere. The government were simply not prepared to release the 13 members of the Red Brigades who were held in Turin in exchange for Moro’s life.
On May 7, Moro was allowed to send a final letter to his wife saying,
They have told me that they are going to kill me in a little while, I kiss you for the last time.
Brutal Assassination
On May 9, the Red Brigades, frustrated with their lack of success in negotiating with the Italian government, decided to kill Moro. Telling him that they had decided to take him to another location, the terrorists bundled him into a car and told him to hide underneath a blanket on the back seat. As soon as Moro had covered himself they opened fire, emptying as many as ten rounds into his crumpled body.
The Polizia di Stato discovered Moro’s bullet-riddled body in the boot of a car in the Via Caetani, which is a site in between the Christian Democratic Party and the Communist Party headquarters.
Mario Moretti, the man who actually shot Moro, made a statement to an Italian newspaper regarding the murder that it ‘was the ultimate expression of Marxist-Lennon revolutionary action’.
Although no one was immediately arrested for the murder of Aldo Moro, over the next ten years, many Red Brigade leaders and members were arrested which considerably weakened their organization. With very limited funds and few members to carry out terror attacks, the group today is almost inoperable.
Just as in the John F. Kennedy assassination, the Moro case became shrouded with conspiracy theories, none of which have ever been proven. People are still asking today why, out of the many terrorist crimes in Italy, was no effort ever made to rescue Maldo either by force or negotiation? The case still haunts Italy today and over the years powerful evidence of official misdeeds and cover-up have emerged. There have even been suggestions that we need look no further than Italy itself for the motive behind his murder. At the time Italian politics was in a state of turmoil and some of the reforms that Moro was proposing could have easily upset the political balance of ruling authorities, especially the Christian Democratic Party.