Mazón's right-hand man when Pradas wanted to impose a lockdown: "Get off your high horse"

ValenciaThe former Minister of Justice and the Interior for the Valencian government, Salomé Pradas, provided the investigating judge in the DANA case with the messages she exchanged on the day of the disaster with the then-President of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, and his chief of staff, José Manuel Cuenca. The Popular Party leader thus responded to the request made by the magistrate following her interview on the program. SavedThe messages reveal how the former head of the Consell's right-hand man assumed a leading role in the dialogue with the former councilor, to the point of trying to block any measure that would restrict citizens' movement—many people died in their vehicles. "Salomé, no lockdown whatsoever," he told her at 7:54 p.m., "get it out of your head," he insisted at 8:15 p.m., despite Pradas's pleas, who explained that the Emergency Law would allow her to take this measure. Cuenca's opposition occurred even though, at 7:55 p.m., the former councilor had already informed him that things were "very bad" and that "there were outbreaks throughout the province," and that, therefore, they were going to send an alert. The chief of staff vehemently opposed the measure, only agreeing to an alert in the districts of Hoya de Buñol, Ribera Alta, and La Costera, but not for the entire province, nor for l'Horta Sud, where the most deaths occurred. In any case, it was already too late, and many people had already drowned or were on the verge of doing so.

The conversation between Cuenca and Pradas took place because the former councilor had been informed that Mazón should not be bothered after both of them left. The directive was followed. In fact, the conversations between the two leaders were very brief, especially terse on the part of the former, and took place before lunch with the journalist Maribel Vilaplana. "Fantastic," the former president told the councilor at 1:34 p.m. in response to the information Pradas had given him that he was in contact with the Spanish government's delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé; "great," the politician from Alicante added in another message at the same time upon being informed of the signing of an agreement between the forest firefighters and the Generalitat (Valencian government).

Besides his apparent disinterest in the storm, the messages also cast doubt on Mazón's account, who still maintains that no fatalities were known until the early hours of October 29, 2024. "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: "We might go to 112 at 7 p.m." – he ended up arriving at 8:28 p.m. Two hours earlier, Pradas had directly warned Mazón that "things are getting complicated in Utiel." These details confirm a striking fact: the former head of the Consell was fully aware of the floods that had been affecting this town since 1 p.m. - where six people died - and despite this, he did not cancel his schedule and had a lunch of almost four hours and afterwards accompanied the journalist to the parking lot talking about football.

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