Mazón learned at 4:28 p.m. that there was a death in Utiel and replied from El Ventorro: "Perhaps we'll go to 112 at 7 p.m."

ValenciaOne, Carlos Mazón, distanced himself from the management of the DANA storm. The other, Juan Manuel Cuenca, tried to prevent the then Minister of Justice and the Interior, Salomé Pradas, from restricting citizens' movement in the areas affected by the storm. This is the main conclusion that can be drawn from the messages that the former minister exchanged with the former president and his former chief of staff, which Pradas voluntarily handed over to the investigating judge who had requested them after the interview she gave to the program. Saved.

The messages reveal how the right-hand man of the former head of the Consell assumed a leading role in the dialogue with the former councilor, to the point of trying to paralyze any measure that would limit the movement of residents in the affected areas—many people died in their vehicles. "Salo [Salomé Pradas], no lockdown," he told her at 7:54 p.m. "Get your head around it," he insisted at 8:15 p.m., despite Pradas's pleas, who explained that the emergency law would allow him to make this decision. This is recorded in the notarized document with the WhatsApp messages provided by Pradas's defense, which ARA has accessed.

Cuenca's opposition occurred even though at 7:55 p.m. Pradas had already informed him that the situation was "very bad" and that "there were floods throughout the province." Pradas also warned that, as a result, they would send out an alert. The chief of staff strongly opposed a lockdown and considered it appropriate only in the districts of Hoya de Buñol, Ribera Alta, and La Costera, but not in the entire province, nor in l'Horta Sud, where the most deaths occurred. The alert was issued at 8:11 p.m., but with incorrect content. It asked people to avoid travel, but not to stay home and in higher areas, as a second message did at 8:57 p.m. In any case, it was already too late, and many people had already drowned or were on the verge of drowning. Curiously, or perhaps not so curiously, José Manuel Cuenca explained during his testimony to the judge that he had lost all the WhatsApp messages he exchanged on October 29 of last year when the torrential rains caused the deaths of 230 people in the Valencian Community alone.

An important detail is that Salomé Pradas contacted Cuenca because she had been informed by the chief of staff himself that Mazón shouldn't be bothered, as he had a very full schedule. The conversations between the two leaders were very brief, especially terse on the part of Pradas, and took place before the lunch with journalist Maribel Vilaplana. "Good grief," the former president told the former councilor at 1:34 p.m. in response to a message Pradas had sent him at 1:03 p.m. in which she informed him that she was in contact with the Spanish government's delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, and explained that the area of greatest concern was ", and the area of greatest concern was ", and the area of greatest concern was ", and that a hydrological alert had just been declared in the affected municipalities. "Béeee," the politician from Alicante added in another message upon being informed of the signing of an agreement between the forest firefighters and the Generalitat.

The first dead

In addition to his apparent disinterest in the storm, the messages also cast doubt on Mazón's account, who still maintains that no one knew there were fatalities until the early hours of October 29, 2024—a claim he bases on the fact that official figures were unavailable at the time. "We've been informed of a death in Utiel," Pradas wrote from Cuenca at 4:28 p.m. Fifteen minutes later, the chief of staff forwarded a message he had received from Mazón: "Maybe we'll go to 112 at 7 p.m."—he ended up going at 8:28 p.m. Furthermore, according to the call log he provided to the judge, the former councilor tried to contact the former head of the regional government at 4:29 p.m., but he didn't answer. Pradas finally managed to get through an hour later. Two hours earlier, at 2 p.m., he had already warned Mazón that the situation was getting complicated in Utiel [where six people died]. However, the former president did not cancel his schedule: he had a nearly four-hour lunch and then accompanied the journalist to the parking lot, chatting about soccer, according to both of them.

Could the Cecopio have been convened earlier?

Although she doesn't emerge as badly damaged as Mazón and Cuenca, there is a message that calls into question the former councilor's actions. It's a message from 1:43 p.m. in which she informs the former president that she is traveling to the town of Carlet—on the banks of the Magro River—along with her deputy, Emilio Argüeso, so that he can "meet with the forest firefighters," with whom she was scheduled to sign an agreement the following day. This raises doubts about whether Pradas could have convened the Cecopio (the regional emergency response center) earlier and implemented measures that ultimately came too late.