The judge in the DANA case summons the owner of El Ventorro to testify and tightens the net around Mazón.

ValenciaFollowing journalist Maribel Vilaplana, now the inner circle of the acting head of the Valencian government, Carlos Mazón, including his potential successor, the parliamentary spokesperson and secretary general of the Valencian PP, Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca, will also have to testify. The magistrate overseeing the DANA case, Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, is increasingly focusing her investigation on Mazón—without formally charging him, as he enjoys parliamentary immunity—and this Wednesday summoned members of his closest team of collaborators as witnesses. Also summoned is the owner of the El Ventorro restaurant, one of the few who interacted with Mazón and Vilaplana during the hours when the DANA storm was wreaking havoc. All of them will have to testify before the judge soon.

Besides Llorca, the judge has summoned Mazón's inner circle: the regional secretary of the Presidency of the Generalitat, Cayetano García; the regional secretary of the president's cabinet, José Manuel Cuenca; The Director General of Communication and Institutional Promotion, Francisco González Pérez; the Director General of the Presidential Press Office, María Teresa Gómez Noguera; and advisor Josep Lanuza. The judge believes her witness can help clarify the content of the calls made by the former Minister of Justice and the Interior, Salomé Pradas, and the then-President of the Valencian Government, given that all of them spoke with these two throughout the 29th. Ruiz Tobarra intends to ascertain "the information available to each of the members of the meeting [the making of erroneous decisions or the omission of necessary decisions that could have prevented the terrible personal injuries under investigation]." In the case of Gómez Noguera and Josep Lanuza, the importance of their testimony stems from the fact that they were the two people who accompanied Mazón on his car journey to the Cecopio (the regional security headquarters). In her written statement, the judge emphasizes her confidence that the phone calls will help her understand why it took so long to warn the public and whether Mazón influenced Pradas's actions. In this regard, she underlines that, according to the law governing the presidency of the Generalitat, the person holding the position has "directive and coordinating functions, and therefore can give instructions to the members of the Consell." Regarding the summons of the owner of the El Ventorro restaurant, the judge clarifies that she wants to ask him if he "heard" any of the excerpts from the conversation between the acting president and the former councilor. Of particular political significance is the summons of Pérez Llorca. Ruiz Tobarra justifies this by stating that on the 29th he had three communications with Pradas: at 6:57 p.m. (a missed call), 6:58 p.m. (14 seconds of conversation), and 6:59 p.m. (9 seconds). After leaving El Ventorro, Mazón—who retains his seat in parliament and, consequently, his protected status, and therefore cannot be summoned to testify unless the case is referred to the High Court of Justice—telephoned Pérez Llorca twice at 6:57 p.m.

Signing lists of athletes in El Ventorro

The judge's ruling coincided with the day it was revealed that the acting head of the Valencian government, while having lunch with journalist Maribel Vilaplana, signed a list of elite athletes from the Valencian Community. The information was released by the Valencian government after the journalist stated on Monday during her testimony that during the lunch, the restaurant owner handed Mazón an envelope containing documents, which he signed and then returned to the owner. Sources within the Valencian government confirmed that it was indeed a list of athletes after the private prosecution brought by Acció Cultural del País Valencià (ACPV) on Tuesday asked the judge to investigate which documents the president had signed. The organization questioned the urgency of the matter. Sources from the Generalitat (Catalan government) explained today that the Directorate General of Sport requested the urgent signing of the third partial list of elite athletes for 2024, given that the list published earlier that day had been incomplete due to an error. The same sources emphasized that the signature was urgent because October 31st of each year is the deadline for students who are also elite athletes to request exemption from physical education or validation of the subject.

Were you informed by a news alert service?

This Wednesday, it was also made public that Acció Cultural del País Valencià has requested that the judge require the Generalitat (Valencian regional government) to provide the contract it has with two companies that compile a press summary of all opinions and news reports about Carlos Mazón published in newspapers, radio, and television, and generate alerts no later than five minutes after each image is captured. The organization is demanding to know what devices receive these alerts and who receives them. It also wants to know if high-ranking officials from the Department of the Presidency and the Ministry of Justice and the Interior, headed by Salomé Pradas, are included, and whether they received these alerts on the day of the DANA (isolated high-level depression) and the day before. The aim of this request is to discover whether government officials were aware of all the news published by the media during that fateful day, which reported on the floods that affected a large part of the Valencia region from early morning and how they progressively worsened from 1 p.m. onwards, becoming catastrophic hours later.

Mazón requests to appear before the commission investigating the Les Corts storm

Also in relation to the tragic events of October 29th a year ago, Carlos Mazón requested to appear before the Valencian Parliament's commission investigating the devastating floods. Specifically, he requested to appear at the session scheduled for Tuesday, November 11th. According to his written request, the acting head of the Valencian government intends to "report on the actions taken by the Generalitat (Valencian regional government) for the social and economic recovery of the areas affected by the flooding, and on anything else the parliamentary groups deem relevant." The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the ministers María Jesús Montero (Finance), Margarita Robles (Defense), and Fernando Grande-Marlaska (Interior), as well as the former Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, and the central government's delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, were scheduled to appear that day. However, the spokesperson for the regional government, Pilar Alegría, ruled out yesterday that Sánchez and the ministers would appear before the Cortes, noting that they are not legally obligated to appear before regional parliaments. Bernabé will also not attend, as confirmed by Spanish government sources to ARA this Wednesday.