Carlos Mazón’s chief of staff, the regional secretary José Manuel Cuenca, gave explicit orders to Councilor Salomé Pradas on the management of the dana emergency of October 29, 2024. This is stated in the notarial record with the WhatsApp messages provided by Pradas’ defense to which elDiario.es has had access.
Pradas informed Cuenca at 4:28 p.m., half an hour before the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi), that she had been informed of “a death in Utiel.”
At 4:43 p.m., José Manuel Cuenca forwarded a message from the president to Salomé Pradas that said that at 7:00 p.m. “let’s go to 112.” At that time, Mazón remained in the booth of the El Ventorro restaurant with the journalist Maribel Vilaplana.
From minute one of Cecopi, Pradas informed Mazón’s chief of staff, when the then president was at lunch at the El Ventorro restaurant. The first information from the counselor in Cuenca outlined the delicate situation in Utiel at 5:01 p.m.
In the key periods of the Cecopi meeting, Cuenca gets in the way and transmits blunt orders so that certain decisions are not carried out in the face of the emergency.
Cuenca asked for “calm” in the midst of tragedy
At 7:54 p.m., the senior official tells him: “Come out. Please don’t confine anything. Calm down.” The counselor answers: “Things are [sic] very bad.” “Now, woman,” answers Cuenca. Pradas insists that there are “overflows throughout the province.” And the chief of staff responds: “But confining a province is barbaric. “It’s one thing to zone.”
Subsequently, the counselor informed him that a “precautionary message” was going to be sent. “Comarcas,” Cuenca responds, in reference to the possible confinement. And Pradas says: “To everyone.” The chief of staff lists the regions (Ribera Alta, Costera, Hoya de Buñol) and concludes “but not the entire province.”
At 7:58 p.m., the councilor emphasizes that they are going to ask for “caution for everyone” and the “confinement of the affected areas.” It also indicates that the “removal (up floors) would be requested.” [a] a few municipalities.”
“Please get that out of your head.”
Ten minutes later, at 8:08 p.m., Cuenca responds: Salomé. To confine. A state of alarm is needed. And that is decreed by the girl next to you. The delegate [del Gobierno, Pilar Bernabé]. Calm down.” Pradas answers: “Yes.” And at 8:10 p.m. he speaks briefly on the phone with President Mazón.
At 8:11 p.m., the Es-Alert was sent by the Emergency Center to all mobile phones in the province of Valencia.
Four minutes after the Es-Alert, Pradas insisted: “But we can decree confinement by emergency law,” the councilor writes at 8:15 p.m.
“Don’t worry”
Cuenca responds: “Ja aplega el presi” (The president is coming). And, quoting a previous message from Pradas about the confinement proposal, Cuenca writes to him in a mix of Spanish and Valencian: “Please get that out of your head.” “Calm down, man,” he adds.
At 8:15 p.m., a 27-second audio message sent by Salomé Pradas to José Manuel Cuenca appears in the notarial record. In that audio, according to the transcription contained in the notarial record, Pradas says in Valencian: “Yes. There are three different measures. We have asked to avoid displacement for the entire province of Valencia, and we are going to decree confinement in the Ribera Alta, Baja, Horta Sud and Hoya de Buñol and within those regions we will ask that they be raised to higher floors in those municipalities and those homes that are close to rivers and ravines.”
A minute later, at 8:16 p.m., the minister writes: “The Confederation [Hidrográfica del Júcar] is going to decree level 3. We are going to advise. Only in affected regions.” Level 3, which was never established, foresees the failure of the dam.
The notarial record of WhatsApp messages
Pradas agreed to voluntarily contribute—as the investigating judge had suggested—the WhatsApp messages he kept from his conversations with Mazón on the day of the Dana, which left 230 dead. The former PP councilor alluded to these communications in the interview she gave to the ‘Salvados’ program on La Sexta.
Salomé Pradas’ defense delivered, shortly before her statement as under investigation on April 11, a notarial record with the list of calls from October 29, 2024. However, Pradas kept the WhatsApp messages that were exchanged with Mazón and with the president’s chief of staff, the regional secretary José Manuel Cuenca.
Pradas’ messages with Mazón are prior to the meal in the private room of the El Ventorro restaurant with Maribel Vilaplana. The agape diner declared before the investigating judge that Carlos Mazón not only received calls during that long after-dinner meal but also “whatsapped.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
