The press chief of the Generalitat's Emergencies has questioned one of the main lines of defense of those investigated in the dana case. Aurora Roca has expressed her “feeling, asked by the Dana judge about whether at the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi): “We all had our cell phones, everyone could consult, but it was a situation that generated concern and tension.” “I don't think we were in a bubble in that sense, we knew what was happening and that's why we were there, to put measures to what was happening. “It's my impression,” he added.
Roca, who has been out for months, was explicitly pointed out by one of those investigated, the former regional Secretary of Emergencies, Emilio Argüeso, for supposedly not having informed Cecopi of what was happening abroad. The witness, on the contrary, explained that the function of the press office she directs “is not to verify what the media says” but, “on the contrary,” to act as an “official source to provide unique information.”
The press officer has confirmed that at the beginning of the Cecopi meeting, shortly after 5:00 p.m., the deputy director general of Emergencies, Jorge Suárez, proposed the use of automatic alert on the population's cell phones. Although Suárez did not explicitly cite the concept of Es-Alert, the notes that Aurora Roca took about Cecopi indicate that this possibility was alluded to.
On the other hand, Roca has assured that in the first disconnection, starting at 6:00 p.m., there was already debate about the sending of the Es-Alert and its content due to the overflowing of the Magro river.
The week before October 29, 2024, the witness had attended an emergency communication course in Madrid in which her Madrid counterpart referred to Es-Alert.
The message that they began to design during the first break focused on Lean. Jorge Suárez said “out loud” to look for the “Madrid text.” “As I was in the course, I made a call to the press officer at 6:14 p.m. in Madrid and he gave it to me at 6:24 p.m.,” explained Roca.
Roca has reported that she “attached herself” to the head of the Risk Analysis and Monitoring Unit, Juan Ramón Cuevas Camps, responsible for transcribing the Es-Alert message, so that once it was sent to mobile phones, it would also be included in the Emergency social networks. However, the woman did not know who told Cuevas Camps the text of the message.
The “instructions” of the Presidency
The witness did not know who gave the order to pause the meeting (the judge asked her if it was the then councilor Salomé Pradas, but she did not know the information). He did clearly remember asking the general director of Emergencies, Alberto Martín Moratilla, if he was going to inform the press, taking advantage of the pause in the Cecopi meeting. Both Martín Moratilla and Pradas' chief of staff, Silvia Soria, told him no.
On the other hand, Aurora Roca has said that Pradas spoke on the phone both inside and outside the room where the Cecopi met.
Upon Mazón's arrival at the Emergency Center (at 8:28 p.m., according to his latest version of the events), “they begin to explain” the situation to him. Roca was “at the expense of the instructions” of the Presidency.