On October 29, 2024, when damage left 230 people dead in the province of Valencia, the then state Minister of Justice and Interior, Salome Pradas, communicated several times via WhatsApp from 11:32 a.m. Carlos Mazzone. He talked about the size of the flood and the risks to the infrastructure that caused the disaster, the Boyo Valley. It is then president He received a “great” response to this information. This was revealed by the criminal record presented by the former leader, the main person investigated in the case, in the Cataruga (Valencia) court investigating the disaster and to which El País newspaper had access.
crossing WhatsApp He confirms that Mazzone learned of the danger in the Puyo Valley at 1:03 p.m., the street that unleashed chaos when it flooded four hours later near municipalities such as Chiva and Chiesti. And then that president He responded with “cojondodo” to a text in which Pradas warned him about the danger of this and other critical infrastructure. “I am in contact with Pilar Bernabé (government delegate in Valencia). The most worrying thing now is the Ribera Alta region, the Poyo Valley and the Magro River. We have just issued a hydrological alert in the municipalities in that region. We have strengthened the 112 (telephone switchboards in Generalitat), we have displaced forest firefighters, and the Union (Regional Fire Brigade) is at full capacity. We will also ask for caution due to marine conditions. Storms,” Pradas said. To his boss. Which at the time kept its institutional agenda intact.
One minute later, at 1:04 p.m., Pradas warned Mazzone of further consequences of the disaster. “There have been several helicopter rescues and they will now be reinforced with Consorcio Castellón (Sic.)“, warns the former commander. Immediately after, the Chancellor presents her boss with “today’s good news.” “Everything seems to indicate that we will sign tomorrow Prior agreement With forest firefighters.” Mazzone responds 29 minutes later: “Beeeeennnnnnnnn,” he says.
After leaving the Liliana Emergency Coordination Center (Valencia) at noon, where he went with his second-in-command, former Director General of Emergency Situations Emilio Argüeso, who is also being investigated in the case, Pradas informed Mazzone that he was moving to Carlit, where the situation was very serious. 2:43 PM “I’m going to Carlette so they can be seen (Sic.) With forest firefighters,” says the former (formerly fired) chief president Four weeks after the floods).
At 2:11 p.m., as Mazzone was rushing to his last event of the morning — a meeting with union leaders and business leaders at the Palau de la Generalitat in Valencia — before going to the El Ventorro restaurant, where he had lunch for nearly four hours with journalist Maribel Villaplana, Pradas informed his boss of another risky scenario. “Things are getting complicated in Util,” the former leader warns, referring to the flooding of the Magro River.
The documented record that EL PAÍS had access to also includes a missed call through the popular messaging app between the two at 8:19 p.m. The second at the same time is 37 seconds long. At that time, Mazzone was arriving with a delegation of advisors and escorts to the center in Liliana (Valencia) where Secubi, the body that coordinated the crisis, was held. he president He descended on this complex at 8:28 p.m., 17 minutes after the massive mobile phone alert was sent. A notification reached phones at 8:11 p.m., when at least 156 people were already dead. That, according to the Cattaruga judge, had it been dispatched sooner, lives could have been saved.
The document sent by Pradas to the court states that the first contact between the two was at 11:32. The former advisor then sends Mazzone a text message containing notes on how to react in the face of disaster. The notification is titled “Dana CV”, requests the transmission of a message of reassurance, and informs of a state of emergency in the La Ribera Alta region and a red alert due to rainfall on the northern coast of the province of Valencia.
The former Chancellor informs the former President of the Council of the rescue operation at the Carlit nursing home, where two wings were flooded. “The situation is under control”, includes the text of Pradas revealed by the program “La Sexta”. Save These communications exist via WhatsApp with Mazoon.
The notarial document was added to the document submitted for the case in April by Pradas’ lawyer, former Madrid Regional Court judge Eduardo de Urbano. The call list confirmed that the former advisor attempted to locate Mazzone on two occasions during the worst periods of the crisis, at 7:10 p.m. And at 7:36 p.m. And then that president He was untraceable for 37 minutes after leaving El Ventoro and while walking through central Valencia with Villaplana.
The revelation that Mazzone knew since the morning of Dana Day of the extent of the tragedy dismantles the theory of the information blackout that the former president and the People’s Party forcefully propagated for a year. The idea asserts that if the Council did not act more seriously and more quickly in the face of the disaster, it was because organizations affiliated with the government of Pedro Sánchez, such as the Jocar Hydrographic Union (CHJ) or the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), did not inform it in time.
The state president, Juanfran Pérez Yurca, asked about the Pradas letters, and he explained on Friday that he had not been able to see them and therefore it was difficult to evaluate them, but “I have always had great respect for the judicial investigation. You have to let it work and then draw conclusions when the judge finishes. I went to testify in court as a witness and handed over the letters voluntarily because I think the important thing is that the facts are there.” I made that clear,” says Cristina Vasquez.