Politics What the Madrid Arena took away
Courts A video revealed by EL MUNDO, a key piece in the Madrid Arena trial
The calls to 112 El Samur, to the friends of the victims of the Madrid Arena: 'You will have to get them out as best you can'
How would you define your personal and professional experiences in these last 10 years that have passed since the events of the Madrid Arena occurred? Personally, there are many experiences and emotions.
Starting from the pain that the tragedy caused me with the death of some girls in one of my events, and that, due to such a specific event, they lost their lives.
I will never be able to forget that, thinking of them, their family and their friends, is something you always carry with you.
The internal pain that this fact produces can never disappear.
On the other hand, the pain of my family, who had to endure both judicial and media lynching, is something that is also very sad.
And at this moment, in which I lost my mother a few weeks ago and my father another seven months ago, that pain is even more acute.
Now with perspective
and in this process that time gives us, one is aware that the irreparable weighs more than everything else.
Professionally, I have changed, I am not the same person as before, I learned from my mistakes and acquired new knowledge, I have reinvented myself and adapted to change, I am looking for new horizons in a new reality that is very different from that of 10 years ago. Do you think that in Spain there has been a before and after in the world of entertainment, events and leisure gatherings, after what happened that night? Of course, without any doubt, there has been a before and after in the entertainment sector.
I think that now this sector optimizes much more in training, a greater effort is made in everything preventive, everything is supervised much more, it mistrusts the good words and deeds that may come,
even from municipal spaces, where we think that everything is correct and sometimes it is not, as happened to me when I rented the venue for the event and in the end it was shown that I did not have the appropriate licenses.
Now, the City Council itself has become more demanding and more responsible in its spaces and rigorously complies with its car license. What is your version of what happened at the Madrid Arena? We all have our truth, mine is that it was an accident where I was just another passenger, I was never the head, owner or manager of the venue and its infrastructure, I was just another client who rented the space to hold the event.
I've always felt that way, one more victim of the accident.
But in my truth, there is also recognition, reflection and common sense,
who tell me that there are things that happened that could have been avoided, those recklessness that, at the time, one is not aware of and is taken for granted that they are correct.
And yet, the concatenation of all of them are what made the event derive in a tragedy that should never have happened.
The worst thing is the pain that I will keep in mind all my life from those five girls who died in a show that I created, not having been able to protect them and guarantee their safety.
Together with the memory of those five girls, I will always carry with me the pain of their relatives and that of my parents. Given the special circumstances of your case and why you were found guilty, do you not think that serving time in prison has been unnecessary? a matter of unnecessary, it is part of the judicial system and must be obeyed.
Once the punishment is accepted,
The experience allowed me to see another reality, I was never depressed because I always dealt with enthusiasm, enthusiasm and a lot of optimism, I took the opportunity to study, I collaborated with my classmates, I worked on what I was told and, above all, I got to know myself better.
During the time I was deprived of liberty, I had a lot of time to think and remember. What would you say to someone who blamed something on the street for what happened 10 years ago at the Madrid Arena? Honestly, I don't think he would say anything, everyone has the right to give your opinion on what you want and one also not to answer.
Perhaps if that person studied my business career, and especially in that venue, he would realize that I had done more than 25 shows and nothing had ever happened.
And after the tragedy, I had five more shows contracted with the City Council.
Anyone can see in this trajectory that the entrepreneur seeks to create a brand that lasts and not profit from a single event, that customers feel happy and at ease so that they repeat.
That is what I did, I was not an unscrupulous event speculator to make money, I invested a lot of money in generating security, product, entertainment and a great brand.
For this reason, those people, if they have the minimum of business vision, I would like them to reason whether or not it was a tragic accident that I never imagined and that I invested a lot of money in not happening. Apart from the apologies in the trial, have you had the option of contacting the families? No, there are many things that have changed and that have happened since then, but that opportunity has not existed nor have I looked for it,
but of course I have had thoughts about the families of the victims and they are emotions very distant from the value judgments in which society only looks for a guilty party to punish and justify the guilt without going into the deep reality of the facts.
As I have explained, I have never had the feeling of asking for forgiveness again because after the trial I have not met the relatives, but that does not mean that I do not feel what happened.
I feel the death of the girls, of Katia, Belén, Rocío, Teresa and Cristina, I feel the pain of the families, and I bear and will always bear the regret of the irreparable damage caused. Don't you think that after the pandemic an exorbitant growth of massive events?
It is a reality that massive events multiply in summer,
And to this we must add that after the restrictions there was a lot of desire to go out.
It is too early to define it, but hopefully it will continue and the activity will continue to function because that entails the creation of many jobs, which are lacking.
Conforms to The Trust Project criteria
Know more
Madrid Arena Case
Add
theater