The one who was Carlos Mazón’s chief of staff on the day of the dana, José Manuel Cuencahad to testify again before the Catarroja court which is investigating the tragedy for the second time. The judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra summoned him again as a witness after revealing the accused former advisor, Salome Pradasthe crossing of WhatsApp that he exchanged with him. In the messages, Cuenca forbade him to decree a confinement in the minutes preceding the sending of the ES alertan instruction which, in the judge’s opinion, could be “an order from the president”. He has now ruled out charging him.
This is what the judge suggested during a tense interrogation in Cuenca this Friday, during which the former chief of staff of the former president of the Generalitat denied having given instructions to Pradas. According to Cuenca, he limited himself to expressing “legal doubts” about a hypothetical confinement of the population, but at no time did he propose measures, as confirmed by judicial sources present in the press release.
“Please don’t confine anything,” Cuenca nevertheless wrote to Pradas on October 29, 2024, just before the launch of ES-Alert. Indeed, the judge highlighted the “contradiction” between the WhatsApp messages and Cuenca’s first statement before the court, in which he defended that the management of the emergency was a “technical” and not a political issue. Cuenca, for his part, claimed that the messages were “decontextualized.”
“I have not given any order, nor made any proposal or suggestion,” said Cuenca, who hides behind the fact that he has no “legal knowledge.” According to his version, he limited himself to asking for “calm” from the councilor at the time so that the Generalitat prosecutor’s office could decide on the legal possibility of internment.
But the judge insisted that, as regional secretary, Cuenca was lower on the Pradas organizational chart. As an advisor, as the magistrate pointed out, Pradas could not receive “instructions” from Cuenca “unless the orders came from Mazón.” When asked if this was the case, Cuenca denied it.
The judge asked him directly if Mazón had given “direct instructions” to Pradas. “Neither direct nor indirect, neither by me nor by the presidency,” insisted Cuenca, emphasizing: “I cannot allow the idea to be attributed to me that I was a transmitter of orders in an emergency.”
Nevertheless, several accusations called for his indictment, although the judge and the prosecutor rejected it. According to the judge, Cuenca did not in practice have the regulatory capacity like Pradas, although judicial sources point out that what the judge was interested in was proving that Mazón actually spoke with the former advisor through his chief of staff. In other words, the judge continues to gather evidence that allows him to make a reasoned presentation to the court. Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community to request the indictment of the former president.
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