“I can't take it anymore.” The president of the Valencian Government, now in office, Carlos Mazón, thus put an end last Monday, November 3, to the flight forward that he undertook since that tragic October 29 of last year he decided to go out for food when the dana was already causing havoc in Utiel.
Mazón, aware that that agape at El Ventorro with an eternal after-dinner meal ended his political career, focused his efforts on prolonging his political survival first, and later his judicial survival, trying to fabricate a story full of hoaxes and manipulations that a multitude of official reports, journalistic information, expert testimonies and, above all, the records of the Catarroja judge who is investigating the management of the catastrophe, have been dismantling one by one.
Neither the audio manipulations of the president of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) or a forecaster from the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) in conversation with an Emergency Technician of the Generalitat, nor the string of lies that he airs every time he has the opportunity, included in his resignation speech, with the information blackout of both state organizations already more than dismantled as the maximum exponent, have been able to achieve their objective: transferring the political responsibility for the management of the emergency, which is solely and exclusively of your Consell, to the Government of Pedro Sánchez. The central executive may be questioned about the slowness of media deployment in the following days, but not the flagrant delay in sending the alert message to citizens' cell phones.
A delay that a year later is unknown for sure if it was related to his endless meal at El Ventorro, which would imply alleged legal responsibilities for Mazón. This is the main reason why both he and the journalist with whom he ate at El Ventorro, Maribel Vilaplana, have repeatedly changed the versions of what happened that afternoon, mainly in relation to the times. The lurches in the different explanations, together with the screams of the victims' relatives at the State funeral, have ended up precipitating the departure of the president of the Consell, cornered and practically without support.
All this also explains why the acting head of the Consell has resigned with an enormous number of unknowns to resolve. And the thing is, two key documents have still not been made public. On the one hand, the El Ventorro invoice that would allow us to know what time they left the restaurant, taking into account that at first they spoke of 5:30 p.m. and the Presidency assured that Mazón arrived at his office at 6:00 p.m. But later, Vilaplana assured that they left between 6:30 and 6:45 p.m. and the president himself assured that from there he went directly to the Palau.
However, elDiario.es revealed in its documentary 'Where was Mazón?' who, according to an eyewitness, appeared there shortly before 8:00 p.m. Later, in another exclusive from this newsroom, another witness confirmed that he arrived at that same time, and also changed his clothes: without a jacket, without a tie and with a yellow sweater, as seen upon his arrival at the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) at 8:28 p.m. But what's more, after a few hours Levante-EMV revealed that Mazón accompanied Vilaplana to the La Glorieta parking lot, next to the Parterre, where the journalist had parked her car. Thus, beyond this last detail, it is still not known for certain what time they left El Ventorro and where the president was until he arrived at the Palau at almost 8:00 p.m. And all this while there were already people dead from the flood. The proof of parking that the judge has required from the company that manages it will shed some light on this matter.
In addition to the restaurant bill, the acting president has also not provided the official record of his calls throughout that day. Until now, only the handmade list that has been presented in the Cortes is known and that only collects calls between 5:37 p.m. and 11:29 p.m. The most striking thing about this list is the 37 minutes in which his cell phone does not register activity, precisely at the most critical moments, between 6:57 p.m. and 7:34 p.m., coinciding with the unknown about his whereabouts. In that period, he did not take two calls at 7:10 p.m. and 7:36 p.m. from his former counselor in charge of the emergency, Salomé Pradas, when she called him to inform him of the sending of the Es-Alert.
On the other hand, Mazón has not yet explained where he changed his clothes that afternoon. In his judicial statement, Vilaplana assured that in the same restaurant he took off his jacket and tie and put on his sweater, a strange situation to say the least and one that the president has not explained either. In this sense, a police source familiar with the work of the bodyguards reveals in the documentary made by this newspaper that the president was able to stop by his house before going to the Palau de la Generalitat, something that the Presidency denies.
Mazón will have a good opportunity to clarify all these issues this Tuesday starting at 4:00 p.m. in his appearance at the Cortes investigation commission. However, it does not seem that he is willing to provide much light in the form of documents. Both the PP and Vox have knocked down the PSPV's request for the president to provide both the El Ventorro invoice and the official call log, which does not prevent him from presenting it voluntarily.