Carlos Mazón’s Regional Minister of Communications, José Manuel Cuenca, appeared on Monday at the Commission of Inquiry on the Administration of Aldana in the House of Representatives, where he explained that on October 29, 2024, the day of the Aldana that caused the death of 229 people in the province of Valencia, around 2:15/2:30 p.m. He left for Benigànim and Xàtiva where he had “personal matters” previously scheduled and was planning to return to Valencia at 7pm, although he was unable to return to the Valencian capital that day due to the storm.
Chief of Staff Carlos Mazzone also confirmed to the questions of Deputy Conciliation Agueda Mico that the President was not “disappearing” on the day of the damage and that the President’s presence in Secope (Integrated Operations Coordination Center) was “never” required, while confirming that he did not remember having a conversation with former Minister Salome Pradas on that day in which he asked her not to disturb the President of the Council: “She and he most likely told him that the President had an agenda that day and that he informed me of that.” However, he insisted that he had submitted a report to the Cattaroga court “of all my conversations”. He said: “The president was waiting for a proposal from me to travel to Auteuil.”
Cuenca also recalled that he suggested having lunch at El Ventorro restaurant with journalist Maribel Villaplana to suggest the direction of À Punt, “just as he had other meetings with three or four other candidates previously.” Regarding the fact that the President of the Council once sent bodyguards home to Venturo, Mazzone’s Chief of Staff confirmed that this was “usual”.
The regional secretary, like Education Secretary Jose Antonio Rovira, reiterated the statement that Emmett’s warnings were from 6 p.m. She would “clean up” and leave for Serranía de Cuenca, insisting that the management of the emergency was technical and that communications were intended to detail the development of the storm. Likewise, he spoke to questions asked by PNV parliamentarian, Edoya Sagastizabal, that no one ever told him about the possibility of sending an alert and that he was not aware of the risk of the Vorata Dam collapsing until approximately 7:30 p.m.
Regarding why Carlos Mazzone did not attend the Secopi meeting earlier, Cuenca confirmed that “at that time it was not known that anything unusual was happening, as it could be known that he was inside the emergency body; 180 liters were expected to fall and 800 liters ended up falling.”