“My children had already left by six o’clock, and Mazón was having lunch at six o’clock.”

Madrid / BarcelonaRosa María Álvarez Gil lost her father during the devastating floods caused by the DANA storm. Speaking from Congress, she recounted the last phone call she had with him before he drowned. This occurred within the framework of the DANA investigation committee, which began this Tuesday with the appearance of representatives of the victims of the torrential rains. Álvarez once again criticized the handling of the crisis by Carlos Mazón, the day after his resignation: "My father's death pains me today just as it did yesterday." However, she did acknowledge that his resignation represents "moral relief and a social victory," but called for the imprisonment of the head of the Valencian government: "Mazón in prison. We are closer." Álvarez recalled how her father died, but also how several other victims perished on October 29th of last year. "I cannot fathom that those responsible for the gross and negligent management, as Judge Núria Ruiz Tobarra stated, are sleeping soundly," said the president of the Association of Victims of the October 29th Deaths. "It was an unavoidable storm; rain doesn't know how to rain, but what we didn't know is that our managers didn't know how to manage either," she lamented. Yesterday, before the hearing, Sergio Alonso, the PP's provincial manager, posted a message on X in which he attacked Álvarez: "Oh, Rosa, it won't be long before we see you on the PSOE's payroll," and continued: "You've fooled many... but not all." Álvarez has not addressed this, but she has criticized the Valencian government for not issuing the alert in time to warn the population. "It was so easy to give a warning, a timely warning. Not on the 29th, but on the 28th or the 27th," he pointed out. And he again accused Mazón of being ultimately responsible: "It doesn't matter if it's Ximo Puig, Mazón, Pérez Llorca, or Catalá." With the last two names, Álvarez was referring to the Names that are on the table to replace MazónThe one he exonerated was the Spanish government: "They had nothing to do with the deaths." However, he did admit that the handling of the following days "could be improved."

Carmina Gil, vice president of the association, who lost her mother-in-law on that fateful day, also appeared. She too did not mince words when criticizing Mazón: "The victims were abandoned to their fate while the institutions that should have protected them looked the other way." "The planning, the coordination, the response failed, and above all, the responsibility of a regional government, whose late and disorganized action cost suffering and 229 lives," she denounced. Gil refuted Mazón's claims of a "meteorological revolution" and an "unimaginable tsunami," reminding everyone that meteorological services had already issued warnings, but emergency services were activated late: "The institution took crucial hours to send an official alert and arrived late with information and logistical support. The DANA storm was a natural phenomenon, but the social and human catastrophe it unleashed was a consequence of improvisation and political inaction." Gil, who explained that her mother-in-law lived in a home managed by the Generalitat (the regional government) as a day center, pointed out that elderly people living in publicly owned apartments should have been notified through various channels. "This structural negligence is institutional abandonment," she asserted before demanding "memory and justice" and that regional leaders assume "responsibility." "These vulnerable people died alone, trapped, and in the most terrible way," she said, her voice trembling with emotion.

"Mazón didn't resign; the people ousted him."

Gil has made it clear that they cannot find closure because the very officials who managed the natural disaster remain in positions of power, such as the Vice President and Minister of Social Services, Susana Camarero. Regarding Mazón's resignation, he emphasized that it was due to public outcry: "He didn't resign, nor did his party leader force him out; we, the people who elected him, forced him out, the same people who now repudiate him for being a liar, incompetent, and a bad person." In this regard, he criticized the People's Party (PP) for keeping him in power until now, as well as their partners in Vox.

"What failed wasn't the weather; the system failed, the management failed. And the climate change deniers. Because every tear, every life lost, every broken family deserves justice. As long as we have a voice, we will continue to shout their names, so that no one else has to shout all the things they must be shouting in pain." Politicians, except for the PP and Vox.

Colpidor has also been a witness for Dolores Ruiz, who lost her husband, Emeterio, and her two sons, Jesús Andrés and Javier, and spent hours clinging to a fence at her country house in Chiva (Foia de Buñol). "When Mazón went to eat at El Ventorro, he knew that Poio wasn't dry, that it was flooded. He left so calmly, and my sons had already left by six o'clock, and he was eating at six," she said. "The president wasn't in his place. When a father abandons his minor children, what does the law do? Punish him, right? Well, that's what I say," she pointed out. "Now, neither respect, nor forgiveness, nor anything else is enough for me," exclaimed Maite Pagán, who lost her sister, brother-in-law, and four-year-old nephew.

Ernesto Martínez, who also lost a sister, Elvira, and a niece, Elisabeth, one of the two people still missing, has spoken out against Mazón's administration with firsthand knowledge: "That day, 229 people didn't have to die if the protocols had been activated on time and properly, if they had worked," he said. In fact, he recalled that they were activated six years ago, and they worked: "The protocols work, what doesn't work are the people, and here what failed was the person," he pointed out. "I care very little about where I was anymore." What I do know is where he didn't go, and he's in charge of an emergency, and the only one responsible for these matters is the president," he added, criticizing Mazón for trying to shirk responsibility. "This must end up in court, and the murderer in prison," he asserted.