Carlos Mazón’s chief of staff, Regional Secretary José Manuel Cuenca, gave explicit orders to Chancellor Salome Pradas regarding the management of the El Dana emergency on October 29, 2024. This was stated in the documented record with WhatsApp messages provided by Pradas’ defense and to which elDiario.es had access.
Pradas informed Cuenca at 4:28 p.m., half an hour before the Integrated Operations Coordination Center (SECOPI) meeting, that she had been informed of a “death in a hotel.”
From the first minute of Secubi, Pradas reported to Mazzone’s chief of staff, when the then president was having lunch at the El Venturo restaurant. The first information from the counselor in Cuenca explained the sensitive situation in Auteuil at 5:01 p.m.
At 7:54 p.m., the senior official told him: “Get out. Nothing to trust, please. Calm down.” “Things (sic) are very bad,” the advisor replies. “Now a woman,” Cuenca answers. Pradas insists that there is “flooding throughout the province.” The head of Gbainet responds: “But confirming the province is barbaric. It is one thing to define the area.”
The advisor then informed him that a “precautionary message” would be sent. “Comarcas,” Cuenca answers, referring to possible imprisonment. “For everyone,” Pradas says. 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 advisor confirmed that they would ask for “vigilance for everyone” and “isolation of the affected areas.” He also notes that “removal of (floors) will be requested (to) a few municipalities.”
“Please get this out of your head.”
Ten minutes later, at 8:08 p.m., Cuenca answered: Salome. To limit. A state of alarm is needed. This is what the girl next to you decided. Delegate (Government, Pilar Bernabe). “Calm down.” “Yes,” Pradas answers. At 8:10 p.m., he speaks briefly on the phone with President Mazzone.
At 8:11 p.m., the emergency center sent the alert to all cell phones in Valencia County.
Four minutes after the warning, Pradas insisted: “But we can issue a quarantine order under the emergency law,” the minister wrote at 8:15 p.m. Cuenca answers: “Ja aplega el presi” (The president is coming). Citing an earlier letter from Pradas about the imprisonment proposal, Cuenca wrote to him in a mix of Spanish and Valencian: “Please get this out of your head.” “Calm down, man,” he adds.
At 8:15 p.m., a 27-second audio message sent by Salome Pradas to José Manuel Cuenca appears in the judicial record. A minute later, the advisor wrote: “The Union (Júcar Hydrographic) will issue a decree on level 3. We will provide advice. Only in the affected areas.”