The DANA judge: "The Generalitat failed to warn the population, either in a timely or appropriate manner."

ValenciaThe recent statements by former Minister of Justice and the Interior, Salomé Pradas, former Regional Secretary of Emergencies, Emilio Argüeso, and the Spanish government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, have not changed the opinion of the judge investigating the DANA case, who this Wednesday reiterated the responsibility of the state, not the state. Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra took advantage of her response to a request from the private prosecution brought by the Liberum association—which called for an investigation into the Spanish government's actions—to once again demonstrate the forcefulness that has characterized her since the beginning of the investigation. Thus, after denying the request, she emphasized that the intention to attribute responsibility to the state executive branch in the emergency "is nothing more than an explicit recognition of the manifest passivity of the regional administration, which failed to warn the population, either in a timely or appropriate manner."

In her criticisms, the judge also included the excuses given by the two defendants so far: Pradas and Argüeso. She criticized them for trying to justify their inaction by a lack of knowledge in the matter or inadequate advice from their subordinates. "The inability to make decisions (alleged as a lack of experience, lack of knowledge of the situation, and the delegation of responsibility to technicians [...]) cannot lead to the repeated search for alternative regulations to those actually applicable," the judge stated. Along the same lines, she condemned the attempts to attribute responsibility to the Spanish government representative, Pilar Bernabé. "Nor can it be attempted," she added, "to justify this inability by repeatedly attributing responsibility to someone who appears as a witness."

Pradas was unable to contact Mazón for over an hour.

Ruiz Tobarra's ruling coincided with the release of the call log of former minister Salomé Pradas. The list indicates two things: first, that she was unable to contact the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, for more than an hour on the afternoon of the catastrophe—specifically, between 6:30 p.m. and 7:43 p.m.—the period during which the sending of the alarm was discussed, and the previous conversation with the president to send the alert to the population at 8:11 p.m. This is stated in the documentation that the former minister has submitted to the Catarroja judge and to which ARA has had access.

The document shows that Pradas was unable to speak with the president until well into the afternoon, although the towns of Utiel and Requena had already been suffering severe flooding from the overflowing of the Magro River as of 2:00 p.m. Specifically, there were two failed attempts at 12:52 p.m. and 4:29 p.m., when the head of the Consell did not answer the phone calls of the former PP senator. The former councilor did manage to speak with Mazón at 5:37 p.m. This was the first conversation of the day between the two, and it only lasted two minutes. This would have been the moment when the president finished lunch with journalist Maribel Vilaplana.

The dialogue between Carlos Mazón and the former councilor continued later. There was a seven-minute conversation at 6:16 p.m., another at 6:25 p.m. lasting 43 seconds, and another at 6:30 p.m. lasting 33 seconds. From then on, until 7:43 p.m., Pradas did not speak with the head of the Consell despite trying at 7:10 p.m. and 7:43 p.m. They contacted her again at 8:10 p.m., one minute before the public notice was sent at 8:11 p.m.

Mazón's version, however, is that she spoke with Pradas "throughout the day" and that in the time before the alert was sent, she didn't speak to the former councilor because she was answering calls from "many people."

The Generalitat acknowledges that it should have monitored the Poio ravine

The news of the calls between Pradas and Mazón and the judge's ruling have overshadowed the Valencian Government's recognition that monitoring the Poio ravine, whose overflowing caused most of the deaths due to the flood, was also its responsibility. This was acknowledged by the Director General of the Natural and Animal Environment, Luis Gomis, in a report sent to the judge and to which ARA has had access. In the document, the senior official admits that "[regional] environmental agents [...] are entrusted (along with other agencies) with monitoring flows in rivers, ravines, regulation systems, and flood zones." The document contradicts the argument repeatedly defended by the Valencian government, which has argued that this function was solely the responsibility of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation.