The judge investigating the management of the DANA of October 29, 2024, places the two heads of Emergencies of the Government of Carlos Mazón before a particularly serious conclusion. There are "clear indications" that the deaths in La Torre could have been avoided if the then minister Salomé Pradas and her number two, Emilio Argüeso, "had exercised their functions" in accordance with civil protection regulations and the Special Plan for Flood Risk.
Magistrate Nuria Ruiz Tobarra states this in a ruling released this Tuesday, in which she orders new proceedings to clarify what information reached this district of Valencia. She considers their deaths an "evident sample of negligence in emergency management", of the lack of warnings and the consequences of the delay for those who died in garages, homes or vehicles.
The resolution reinforces the investigation into the possible criminal responsibility of the two former high-ranking officials, who remain under investigation. The judge links their decisions and omissions with the possibilities of protecting the population of La Torre, within a catastrophe that left 233 fatalities in the province of Valencia, 17 of them in the municipality of Valencia as a whole.
An alert that did not explain the danger
The instructor reconstructs a succession of failures during that day. In the morning there was already a red alert from the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), there were forest firefighters who were not mobilized to monitor riverbeds and the call for the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (CECOPI) was, according to the ruling, "abnormally" late.
Added to this was the slowness in decisions. The massive alert ES-Alert reached mobile phones at 8:11 PM, after the hesitations and legal and linguistic discussions recorded by the magistrate. Its content also did not warn of specific risks such as going down to a garage or remaining on the ground floor of a home.
It was not raining in La Torre and, as the judge reasons, its inhabitants lacked sufficient information to understand the approaching danger. Seven people died in the garage on Mariano Brull street. Others died when returning from work or were in their homes, including a man with reduced mobility.
The resolution also examines changes in the draft notices. One recommended staying at home and another proposal suggested moving to higher floors for municipalities located downstream from the Forata dam. Although the latter referred to another area, the judge considers that this instruction would have been useful in La Torre.
The message to move to higher floors, she argues, "could have saved lives in La Torre, had it been sent before 8:57 PM". The order thus points to a central issue for determining responsibilities: whether a timely warning with adequate instructions would have allowed the victims to get to safety.
Pradas was in command of the emergency
The magistrate again points out who should have made the decisions. Pradas was the sole commander in emergency situation 2 provided for by the Flood Plan. When she assumed that this responsibility fell to her, the judge states, her actions were already "late and erroneous".
The order also questions why the former minister continues to defend a co-direction of the CECOPI and appeals to state regulations to displace regional ones. The instructing judge recalls that the Provincial Court of Valencia has repeatedly ruled on this framework of competencies and reproaches that these explanations contradict its resolutions.
She also rejects Argüeso's justification, who declared that he did not have to go to the CECOPI. The judge recalls that the summons corresponded to the Valencian Agency for Security and Emergency Response, an organization he directed as regional secretary. She considers his explanation difficult to understand and relates it to his scarce or null intervention.
The investigation continues while the pressures that the magistrate herself denounced in March before the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) are known. According to information published this Tuesday by 'El País', Ruiz Tobarra attributed to lawyer Rubén Gisbert a strategy to remove her from the case and denounced recordings she considered illicit. The CGPJ archived in September the complaint about the alleged intervention of her husband in witness statements.
In the order regarding La Torre, the judge recalls that its district mayor, Rafael Arnal, declared that he did not receive direct warnings from the Emergency Coordination Center. The AEMET red alert reached him through a chat where the mayor of València, María José Catalá, forwarded it.
Now it requires the City Council to, in five days, identify the official assigned to La Torre that day and provide the communications sent to the district mayor's office between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m., including those from other public bodies. It also summons the district mayor of Forn d'Alcedo as a witness, who may voluntarily hand over messages about the emergency, although it rejects generally incorporating the chat of the district mayors.
