Mazón's chief of staff claims to have lost the WhatsApp messages from the day of the DANA storm.

ValenciaThe chief of staff to the acting president of the Valencian Community, Carlos Mazón, José Manuel Cuenca, has stated that he has lost all the WhatsApp messages he exchanged on October 29th of last year, when the devastating storm caused the deaths of 229 people in the Valencian Community alone. He told this to the investigating magistrate on Wednesday, according to sources present at his testimony, as reported by ARA. Cuenca, who holds the position of regional secretary of the President's Cabinet, said he changed his mobile phone in July because his device was full, and since he didn't have up-to-date backups, he lost the messages. When asked about the period covered by the loss, he cited between 9 and 12 months.

Mazón's right-hand man also confirmed that the acting head of the Valencian government decided to go to the Cecopio (the regional emergency response center) at 7:34 p.m. when the regional secretary for Infrastructure and Transport, Javier Sendra, explained that the central facilities and workshops of the metropolitan area's metro service were flooding. This is the moment from which the acting head of the Valencian government resumed his calls—the last one had been at 6:57 p.m.—after a 37-minute disconnection during which he had reportedly been walking with journalist Maribel Vilaplana from the El Ventorro restaurant in Valencia to the parking lot where he said goodbye to her. At 7:43 p.m., Mazón called the former Minister of Justice and the Interior, Salomé Pradas, who had called him at 7:10 p.m. and 7:36 p.m. without Mazón answering, even though it was then that most of the deaths from the catastrophe were occurring and preparations were underway at the Cecopio (Emergency Coordination Center). Cuenca, who was out of Valencia because he had traveled to the towns of Benigànim and Xàtiva for a personal matter, also detailed that around 5:00 p.m., he raised with Pradas the possibility of the Valencian president traveling to Utiel—where there had been severe flooding since 1:00 a.m.—when the head of Emergencies warned him that the area was inaccessible and that even the Military Emergency Unit was having trouble reaching it.

When asked by the judge if he knew about the president's lunch with Vilaplana, the chief of staff said that he "knew who he was having lunch with." "I suggested this lunch, just as I did with three or four other potential candidates for the management of À Punt," he explained. "I arranged the lunch, and I knew who he was having lunch with and where he was; I had him located," he added. The high-ranking official described El Ventorro as the establishment where Mazón "holds lunches with Valencian and national media outlets and meetings of the Valencian Community's People's Party (PP)."

The high-ranking official also explained that Mazón "doesn't like having his bodyguard with him all the time." Although he didn't witness the events, he ventured a guess as to the reason for the president's security detail being withdrawn: "They would accompany him, and then he would tell them that when [lunch] was over, he would go to the Palau. That's the usual procedure. Sometimes we've arrived near his house, and he releases them," he noted. The high-ranking official also specified that Mazón uses his "lifelong" phone. "He's never had a second line," he added.

[We are working to expand this information]