The advisor who accompanied the former president of the Generalitat Valenciana Carlos Mazón on the night of the Cecopi – the autonomous body that coordinated the flood – has assured this Monday in the Catarroja court (Valencia) that the former leader did not speak of an emergency until 7:45 p.m. that day. He has also stated that Mazón remained in the Palau de la Generalitat for 25 minutes before moving to the device that managed the crisis in L’Eliana (Valencia), which conflicts with the version given by the bodyguards of the former president in court. “We were in the office for 20 or 25 minutes, talking. He answered the calls. I didn’t hear him talk about the emergency,” explained Josep Lanuza, according to sources present at his appearance to EL PAÍS.
The advisor, who today works for the PP of Valencia, stated that he first heard Mazón refer to the cold drop at 7:45 p.m. after having a call. Then, the worst of the damage worsened. “When he hangs up, he tells me that there is a problem with the Forata dam. He had spoken to . It was 7:45 p.m. I seem to remember that Mazón then received a call. He didn’t tell me anything else about the damage,” he stated to the instructor.
Lanuza, who has appeared in court as Mazón’s communications advisor, has reported that, on the day of the dana, he spoke with the former president about a CIS survey. And he discussed the topic during his consulting sessions, which he provided from 7:00 p.m. at the Palau de la Generalitat. He also recalled what Mazón’s arrival at the headquarters of his Government was like. It happened “from 7:30 p.m.” “He arrived alone. I go up with him. We talk about the issues we had planned, but he tells me that we won’t be able to ship because there are problems,” he recalled.
The trip to L’Eliana (Valencia) of the institutional delegation was used by the then head of the Consell to find out about the emergency. “He spoke on the phone with Pradas. I heard him say that he told her that we were on the way. He spoke to her again before arriving,” he added.
Mazón asked during the journey about how to go to the Cecopi complex and told those around him about the risk of the possible failure of the Forata dam, an infrastructure in Yátova (Valencia) whose overflow could have caused 4,000 victims.
Lanuza has told the judge that Mazón did not refer, during the trip to Cecopi, to the sending of Es Alert, the massive mobile alert that was sent at 8:11 p.m., when the majority of the missing had already died.
The advisor has appeared in court as a witness. They dismantled before Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra the story that the former leader defended for months. A script that maintained that the popular one followed the evolution of the crisis in the Palau de la Generalitat from 5:00 p.m. The testimonies of his collaborators maintain, however, that Mazón did not disembark at the headquarters of his Government until 8:00 p.m. And, from there, he headed to Cecopi, where he arrived at 8:28 p.m., when most of the 230 dead had already died, according to the investigation.
Mazón spent the afternoon of the dana with the journalist Maribel Vilaplana while episodes such as the overflowing of the Poyo ravine, the genesis of the catastrophe, escalated. After eating with her at the central El Ventorro restaurant in Valencia for four hours (3:00 p.m.-6:45 p.m.), the former president He accompanied the informant to pick up her car at a parking lot in the heart of the city. An episode that coincides with the 37 minutes in which Mazón was incommunicado and untraceable.
