On the day of the dana, Carlos Mazón activated a communication plan via WhatsApp: he asked his consellers to saturate the media with data to create a false sense of alert. While others reported from the ground, he stopped writing. The strategy, according to internal sources, aimed to divert attention from the absence of a real emergency plan. The citizen received figures, but no direct help.
Massive data as a firewall against the lack of technical protocols 🛡️
The tactic of flooding with technical information resembles a DDoS attack: saturate the channel so that no one can ask about the essentials. In emergency systems, data without action is noise. While the consellers sent weather reports and flow figures, evacuation and on-the-ground assistance protocols were sidelined. Crisis management became perception management, delegating operational responsibility to those in the field.
Mazón and the art of disappearing behind a flood of PowerPoints 📊
If Mazón proved anything, it's that in emergencies, a good PowerPoint can be more lethal than the rain. While he silenced the chat, his consellers released data as if it were confetti at a wedding. The citizen, drenched in numbers, could only wonder: will this get me out of the water, or just get me wet with statistics? At least, the dana took the blame.