DANA judge's forceful ruling: "Cecopio seemed like a bubble isolated from the outside world."

Valencia"El Cecopio seemed like a bubble isolated from the outside world." These forceful words from the judge presiding over the DANA case sum up the growing disbelief surrounding the magnitude of the tragedy.

Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra expressed her astonishment in a ruling in which she responded to a private prosecution that had demanded she charge the Spanish government's representative in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, as the Popular Party did last week. She reiterated that "the Valencian government is the highest body for the direction and coordination of civil protection in the Valencian Community." "It completely changes the distribution of powers, shifting from regional to state jurisdiction over civil protection," she summarized.

The judge has used the writing to highlight that the list of telephone calls and communications provided The statements by former Interior and Justice Minister Salomé Pradas and former regional secretary Emilio Argüeso make it clear that the Generalitat demonstrated "obvious passivity in the face of a serious situation," since by the time the alert was raised [at 8:11 p.m.], most of the incidents had already occurred. They also criticize the fact that the more than 15,000 calls for help received on the 112 number did not result in any measures being taken "to save the population."

"Those who were supposed to be making the decisions claim to be unaware of the phone calls from 112, the Aemet weather forecasts, or the communications about the state and flow of the ravines," the judge emphasizes, highlighting that in the meeting room of the Integrated Operaista Coordination Center (C burbuja, isolated from the outside world, with no possibility of leaving the room and where time passed slowly, delaying decision-making, while water and mud overflowed from the ravines and riverbeds." She adds: "Calls for help did not cross the threshold of the room."

To Ruiz Tobarra's surprise, the Cecopio seemed "a place where no information reached them, no sound advice was given to them, and where those who entered lost consciousness or memory of the seriousness of the situation: the ravines are about to collapse, wrote the former regional Secretary of Emergencies Emilio Argüeso in a message before entering the Cecopio at 2:44 p.m., while the Es-Alert alert to the population was sent at 8:11 p.m.," he concludes.

In addition to harshly criticizing the management of the Valencian Government, the judge also had time this Tuesday to reject a request from a private prosecution seeking to obtain recordings of the vehicles that entered the Emergency Coordination Center on the day of the DANA.

Furthermore, she asked the Director General of the Natural Environment to report on the resources allocated to monitoring the Poio ravine, which caused the majority of deaths. The request comes after the Valencian Government acknowledged for the first time a few days ago that it was a responsibility it shared with other agencies such as the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation.

Finally, he has summoned eleven employees of the Valencian Agency for Security and Emergency Response of the Generalitat (Catalan Government) and the 112 telephone line to testify as witnesses. These are an Emergency Communications Operator, the Coordinator of Resources and Civil Protection, a Civil Protection technician, a senior technician specializing in Forestry Extinction Operations and Communications, and the head of the Emergency Analysis and Monitoring Unit. He also summoned three employees of the 112 operational platform in the Valencian Community and the coordinator of the Technical Communications Unit of the technological platform of this service to testify as witnesses.