Mazón washes his hands of the DANA again: denies that the late Es-Alert influenced the 231 deaths and points to Pradas

The former president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, has presented his first substantial brief to the court investigating the management of the DANA of October 29, 2024. In its 66 pages, he tries to distance himself from the delay of Es-Alert, rules out any relationship between his decisions and the 231 deaths, and places operational responsibility on his former Minister of Emergencies, Salomé Pradas.

The defense argues that the mass alert sent to mobile phones at 8:11 PM cannot be legally linked to each of the deaths. To hold Mazón responsible, his lawyer argues, it would have to be proven that receiving the same message a few minutes earlier would have allowed a specific victim to act differently and save themselves with a probability "bordering on certainty."

The reasoning leads the former head of the Consell to suggest that it is impossible to demonstrate this causal link individually. The alert arrived when the flood had already devastated several Valencian municipalities and many of the victims had been trapped, although the defense precisely uses that chronology to question whether an earlier warning would have changed the outcome.

Mazón also denies having given orders to paralyze or modify Es-Alert. His lawyer states that the essential content of the messages was already prepared by 7:45 PM and that communications between the then chief of staff of the Presidency, José Manuel Cuenca, and Salomé Pradas began nine minutes later. The defense denies that Cuenca acted on instructions from the former president.

Magistrate Nuria Ruiz Tobarra had made a very different reading of those messages. In the reasoned exposition submitted to the High Court of Justice of the Comunitat Valenciana, the judge considered that expressions such as "No confining, Salo" had an imperative character and could respond to indications from the Presidency.

Mazón places the burden on Pradas

Mazón's strategy places the management of the emergency on Salomé Pradas and the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi). The brief recalls that the then minister directed the flood plan and assures that discussions about the content of the alert took place among the officials present or connected to the meeting, without the intervention of the former president.

This argument is supported by the ruling of the Valencian High Court of Justice, which in March rejected opening a case against Mazón, considering that he did not occupy the legal position of guarantor required to attribute to him a negligent homicide by omission. The court circumscribed its decision to the criminal sphere and left out any moral or political assessment of his conduct.

The ruling also did not close the investigation that continues in Catarroja against Pradas and the former regional secretary of Emergencies, Emilio Argüeso. The Provincial Court subsequently allowed Mazón to appear to defend himself because there are still proceedings capable of providing information that could lead to a future indictment. The former president maintains his seat in Les Corts, retains his immunity, and currently is not listed as investigated.

From that position, his lawyer now asks the judge to specify whether any line of inquiry regarding a possible criminal responsibility of Mazón remains open. The defense argues that it cannot combat an unknown hypothesis and demands that any specific action still intended to be attributed to him be identified.

The judicial move comes almost two years after a day in which Mazón remained for hours away from the emergency while eating with journalist Maribel Vilaplana in a private room at El Ventorro. The former president had not yet arrived at the Cecopi when the alert appeared on phones at 8:11 p.m. His incorporation into the meeting occurred later.

The general secretary of the PSPV-PSOE, Diana Morant, has responded harshly to the letter. "Almost two years later, they are still unable to recognize the obvious: they arrived late when it mattered most," she denounced. The socialist leader added that "a timely alert could have changed the fate of 231 people" and accused Mazón of continuing to flee from his responsibilities.