New videos confirm that Pradas knew about the danger of the ravines at midday during the DANA.

Barcelona / ValenciaNew evidence against Salomé Pradas for her management of the DANA (National Watershed). At least two videos incorporated into the case being investigated by Catarroja judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, and to which ARA has had access, demonstrate that the former Valencian Minister of Justice and the Interior knew from noon on the day of the tragedy that the Poio ravine and the Magro River needed to be controlled. She had even expressed concern about possible flooding. However, the emergency coordination body, Cecopio, would not convene until 5:00 PM, and the alert to the public would not be issued until 8:11 PM.

These are recordings made by a production company for the Emergency Department and which the Generalitat (Catalan Government) had hidden until now, both from the investigating judge and from the Valencian Parliament and the Spanish government, who had requested them. "No recordings have ever been made, nor have reports been made." said the Emergency Councilor, Juan Carlos Valderrama, in February. "There is no documentary support or recordings in general" from Cecopio, the department added. The existence of the images was discovered a month ago with the broadcast on RTVE of an audio recording made through the microphone of a camera from À Punt. Following this revelation and the judge's express request, the department has had no choice but to provide the recordings it had hidden.

The videos, all just a few minutes long and obtained as resource images for television stations—with the commitment to broadcast them without audio—were recorded at the Emergency Coordination Center, and Pradas appears alongside his deputy, Emilio Argüeso, also under investigation by the judge. One of the recordings shows that they had been in operation since at least 12:32 p.m., the time shown on the real-time situation monitoring panels. One of the recordings was recorded at 1:56 p.m. on October 29th, and a 112 emergency services worker is seen commenting that the danger "isn't the rain itself, but what the ravines carry." Pradas responds: "Exactly, that's what worries us most at that moment."

In another fragment, Pradas can be seen taking notes while the deputy director general of Emergencies, Jorge Suárez, tells her: "We have issued a hydrological alert for the Magro River, the closest one, and for the Poio ravine." Suárez is referring to the alert declared for the Magro at 11:45 a.m. and for the Poio at 12:30 p.m. Two warnings that would be confirmed a few hours later when the two streams of water overflowed their banks, causing the deaths of 229 people. In the recording of this moment, the councilor can be seen making notes in a 12:15 p.m. report entitled Meteo dana Valencian Community. In Pradas' handwritten notes you can read "Río Magro / Rambla del Pollo" – misspelled, with a double spelling – and the words "hydrological alert" and "ravines".

The new videos come after the judge investigating the management of the DANA made public on Friday a forceful ruling in which she speaks of"overwhelming evidence of negligent conduct" on the part of PradasIn his letter, he considers the former councilor responsible for "gross negligence," not only for the extremely serious fatal outcome, but also for the slowness in adopting measures, including the convening of the Cecopio (Cecopio) and the issuing of an alert to the population. He adds that the lack of "control of the ravines" also affects the area.

Commission in Congress

The PSOE and Sumar have agreed to unblock the DANA commission of inquiry in Congress. Until now, one of the main disagreements was the statement made by the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez. According to Socialist sources confirmed today, the head of the state executive agreed to appear.

The commission will be convened in the coming days if both parties reach an agreement with Compromís, Podemos, and the other parties that supported Sánchez to design the work plan and agree on the appearances. According to the PSOE and Sumar proposal, the commission will have an investigative phase and a focus on reconstruction, and the Spanish Prime Minister would appear in the second phase.