One week after the arrival of the DANA which has left more than 200 dead, the authorities have not yet made public the number of people missing as a result of the disaster.. This Tuesday, from the Moncloa, the director of the National PoliceFrancisco Pardo, and that of the Civil GuardMercedes Gonzalez, have justified the absence of data by pointing to the “difficulties” in the search efforts of the agents due to “the effects” of the floods.
Pardo has pointed out in a press conference that in this matter “we must be especially rigorous” and has also highlighted “the difficulties of the affected citizens to access the offices of missing persons that were located in the city of Valencia”. On the other hand, the director of the National Police has stressed that “two new offices have been set up in the most affected area to be closer to the citizens”.
“There are protocols that advise even the taking of DNA samples to make identification contrasts. It is not logical to think of a call in which someone puts in knowledge that the disappearance has occurred: the protocol is very strict“Pardo said after recognizing “a certain delay in providing data”. Likewise, the general director recalled that this Monday the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, announced that the data would be provided “shortly”.
Mercedes González, who has subscribed to the words of Pardo, also wanted to move “a message of security and confidence”.. “The chain is part of the structure of the State, and the officials who are collating the information deserve respect and trust,” Gonzalez stressed. The director of the Benemérita has regretted that “there are many lucubrations” around the data of disappearances and has claimed that “behind each missing person there is a life, a family, friends”. “A serious work is being done,” Mercedes Gonzalez concluded.
More than 180 arrested
At the press conference held after the meeting of the crisis committee for the follow-up of the effects of the DANA, Gonzalez and Pardo reported that the National Police and the Civil Guard have arrested 186 people in the last few days. From “minute zero”, both police forces have installed devices to arrest possible criminals in the affected areas. The National Police has deployed plainclothes officers “to detect people who could be organizing to perpetrate looting” and, according to the director of the force, “87 people have been arrested”.
Among them all, 77 have been arrested for “acts of looting.”two other individuals for “robbery with force”, four more for “theft inside a vehicle” and the remaining five for theft. “Several of the detainees have been remanded in custody at this time by judicial decision,” said Francisco Pardo.
For its part, Mercedes Gonzalez has reported that. the Armed Institute has arrested 99 people. “From the first moment the devices were reinforced to prevent acts of looting and pillaging,” said the director of the Civil Guard. Even in “the same night in which the tragedy was unleashed”, the agents of the Benemérita arrested four people who were stealing and have been remanded in custody.
However, neither the director of the Civil Guard nor the National Police have clarified if there is any individual identified or arrested after the events of Sunday in Paiporta, where the kings, the president of the Government and the president of the Generalitat were received with mud throwing and some objects. “From the first moment, the Information Service Headquarters was put with the investigation, when we have more information we will transfer it“said Gonzalez.
The director of the Guardia Civil has stressed that “the visit to Paiporta was organized by the Royal House”. and those in charge of security belonged to the Royal Household team. “I know them perfectly well, they are professional experts, no assessment,” he stressed in reference to the security team. González has “radically” condemned the attacks and, although he has not clarified if it is a group of radicals as the president of the Government maintains, he has assured that the facts “have nothing to do with the royal pain of that affected locality”. “They do not represent Paiporta,” he concluded.