Is Mazón's photo at the Cecopio manipulated? Podemos asks the Prosecutor's Office to investigate.

BarcelonaIt was not until four months after the DANA in Valencia that Carlos Mazón specified what time he had arrived on the fateful October 29th at the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi). Besieged by political and judicial pressure, the Valencian president claimed two weeks ago that it was 8:28 p.m. when he arrived at the scene, 17 minutes after the flood alert was sent to the population. This new version – until then he had placed his arrival "after 7 p.m." – was supported by an image released by the Generalitat Valenciana shortly after: a capture from the video surveillance system in which Mazón is seen greeting the receptionists at Cecopio at 8:28 p.m. However, several eyewitnesses maintain that the PP politician arrived earlier and in recent hours suspicions have grown that the photograph of Cecopio could have been manipulated.

Podemos has filed a complaint with the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Valencia to investigate the image. The document, which points to an alleged crime of document falsification, clings to an expert report commissioned by the newspaper The Leap and published this Thursday, which concludes that the security camera capture is "technically false." The purple party is requesting the public prosecutor's office to identify the official or authority who made the capture, which was forwarded to the Efe news agency, which distributed the image and the journalist who received and published it. It is also demanding that an independent expert report be prepared. "We want to know the truth; we deserve it after so much pain, and we want justice," argued María Teresa Pérez, spokesperson for the party in the Valencian Community.

In the report published in The Leap Expert witness Luis Duque is clear: "I can only definitively conclude that, technically, this image is fake." The expert argues that neither the file's metadata, which has been erased, nor other technical details allow "us to lend credibility to the image." "It would be like giving credibility to a passport made from newspaper just because it includes a photograph of the owner, or in other words: if the support isn't authentic, nothing included in it is authentic," he concludes about his report, which also describes a series of anomalies surrounding Mazón's figure in the image of the feet.

Podemos, which is acting as private prosecutor in the DANA case, had already requested on Thursday in the Catarroja court handling the case that it request the security camera footage to verify whether Mazón is telling the truth or not, and Compromís has asked À Punt to send it all the recordings it made on the day of the DANA. The spokesperson for the Valencian party, Joan Baldoví, explained that the objective is to verify what "many people doubt" and, in fact, assured that they have "the certification of a witness" who confirms that the Valencian president was already at the Cecopio at 7:30 a.m., before the alert was issued.

The Generalitat denies the accusations.

The Valencian Government responded to the report's publication this Thursday, calling the information contained therein "completely false." In a statement, the Mazón government denies having manipulated the image and details its own various reports that "certify with official data and documentary evidence" that "between 4:00 p.m. and 8:11 p.m., the president was not at the Cecopio." "It is proven and certified, without any doubt, that he reached 8:28 p.m.," the note adds, in which legal action is not ruled out against "the source that originated the falsehood" to guarantee the right to honor of senior officials and civil servants of the Generalitat.

Despite Mazón's complaints, the reality is that he has repeatedly changed his version of his role on the day of the DANA, which left 227 people dead, and that his story must be framed within the context of the ongoing judicial process and the pressures for him to step aside. The head of the Council refuses to resign and, For the moment, the PP supports him.. The PSPV has also seen how The numbers didn't add up to push through a motion of censure., which she ruled out just days after proposing it. "The ballot boxes are the only way out," said Diana Morant, the secretary general of the PSPV, on Wednesday. But only Mazón has the power to call them.

Feijóo distances himself from Mazón

Although Alberto Núñez Feijóo has yet to publicly withdraw his support for Mazón, the PP leader is distancing himself. Speaking this Friday from Valladolid, Feijóo linked the Valencian president's political future to the judicial investigation into the management of the DANA (National Action Plan for the Defense of Socialism). "I want to know what happened, who was responsible, and for it to be investigated to the end," the PP leader emphasized. Feijóo has made a "commitment" to the investigation and emphasized that the deaths make it necessary for "politicians to assume the corresponding responsibilities."