Where was the president of the Generalitat Valenciana during the hours in which 229 Valencian men and women drowned? This is one of the big questions that the documentary addresses a year later. Where was Mazón?which premieres this Friday on elDiario.es about the most critical hours of the tragedy and the role of the head of the Consell. The documentary reconstructs with experts, documentation of the judicial investigation, unpublished images and exclusive testimonies the failures in the management of the catastrophe and focuses on the last movements of the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, before attending the key meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center, Cecopi, at 8:28 p.m., on the afternoon of October 29, 2024.
After months of investigation, elDiario.es has obtained the testimony of a witness who claims that the president of the Consell arrived at the Palau de la Generalitat after his long lunch at El Ventorro after 7:45 p.m. on the afternoon of the day of the dana. He did so, according to his story, to leave minutes later in his official car towards the Eliana Emergency Coordination Center where the Cecopi had been meeting since 5:00 p.m. without his assistance.
The journalist Maribel Vilaplana, who had lunch with Mazón that afternoon, stated in an open letter that the lunch lasted for three and a half hours until 6:30 or 6:45 p.m. The account of the eyewitness contacted by elDiario.es therefore supports the thesis that the president of the Generalitat Valenciana neither attended to the emergency after the meal nor followed the development of the damage from his office. Mazón continues, thus, having a void to fill regarding his movements on the day of the tragedy between 6:45 p.m. and 7:45 p.m., when he arrived at the Palau according to this source, while the Valencian municipalities were flooded and dozens of their inhabitants drowned.
Another unpublished testimony collected in the documentary Where was Mazón? complete that witness's account. He is a police expert in escort services and with knowledge of the device that the president has. “Talking to my colleagues, they tell me that this man, when they finish eating there, goes home. He'll take a shower, sleep it off or something, you know? And then the bodyguards return to the Palau,” he says.
Consulted by elDiario.es, the Generalitat Valenciana “radically” denies this version and insists on the thesis defended by Mazón in several recent interviews in related media. According to his story, the head of the Consell went directly from El Ventorro to the Palau to continue managing the crisis from his office. The leader of the Valencian PP has not provided details or documentary evidence about his arrival time at the Palau or the journey he followed from the restaurant, something that has led to his version being widely questioned.
The Generalitat has not released images from the Palau's security cameras as it did with its arrival at Cecopi. The videos from the Presidency headquarters were destroyed, unlike those from the Emergency Center that allowed Mazón to escape the investigations of Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra a few months ago. The Generalitat Valenciana distributed an image of the president's arrival at Cecopi, ensuring that it had been obtained by the building's video surveillance cameras at 8:28 p.m. Its dissemination occurred after the case instructor requested a list of the participants in the meeting before 8:11 p.m., at which time the late mass mobile alert was launched.
Chaos and lack of preparation
The investigation by elDiario.es also delves into the management errors of Mazón's executive and his lack of preparation to face the crisis. Proof of this is the Emergency Department's decision to withdraw at around 2:45 p.m. on the day of the tragedy the forest firefighters that had been sent that noon to monitor the flow of the Poyo ravine due to fear of a possible flood. From the ravine itself, a firefighter explains that if those troops had remained there, they would have been able to report at 5:00 p.m. the sudden increase in flow that ended up triggering the deadly flood. “It would have been very useful information for emergency management,” he says.
At the same time that the Poyo ravine begins to overflow, the Cecopi meeting begins in l'Eliana. In another example of the chaotic management of the catastrophe, the Cecopi was formed at 5:00 p.m. to deal with the level 2 emergency due to flooding that had been declared in the Utiel-Requena region two hours earlier.
“At three in the afternoon in Utiel they are, literally, with water up to their necks. Up to their necks, no, above that. And you call a meeting to coordinate the means that have to intervene in the rescues for two hours later. It's outrageous,” says the president of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, Miguel Polo, in the only interview he has given to a media outlet since the tragedy.
To the head of meteorology at Aemet in the Valencian Community, José Ángel Núñez, the call to participate in Cecopi arrived after 4:00 p.m. At that time, the situation in the interior of the province of Valencia was already serious. Her testimony, together with that of Polo and the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, as well as the images of the meeting incorporated into the case summary that elDiario.es has accessed, allow us to reconstruct the chaotic way in which the accused former councilor Salomé Pradas led the meeting until the alert was sent to mobile phones.
The journalistic investigation also allows us to compare the different responses of the authorities to the tragedy. While a mayor like that of Utiel, Ricardo Gabaldón (PP), suspended classes from early in the morning and warned residents of the risks of the storm, a good part of the Mazón Executive continued with its usual agenda until after 7:00 p.m.
In fact, the vice president of the Consell, Susana Camarero, even participated in Cecopi to abandon it shortly after while the evacuations of municipalities were being debated to go to an awards ceremony with the Minister of Infrastructure, Vicente Martínez Mus. Both were handing out those business awards while dozens of regional roads were flooded and 11 people lost their lives in the nursing homes managed by Camarero's department.
Mazón, absent
The president of the Generalitat knew at 1:30 p.m. that there were two hydrological alerts activated, as he himself explained to unions and employers in a meeting held at that time at the Palau de la Generalitat, according to the testimony of one of those attending that meeting collected in the documentary. Despite the extreme situation in the Poyo and Magro riverbeds and although the floods are causing havoc in Utiel at that time, Mazón decides to go to El Ventorro for lunch with journalist Maribel Vilaplana. A meal that lasts more than three and a half hours and about which Vilaplana herself will have to give explanations to the judge investigating the management of the tragedy after being summoned to testify as a witness on the 3rd.
While the Cecopi takes place in a chaotic manner, Mazón continues with his meal with the journalist, which ends around 6:45 p.m. After leaving El Ventorro, the president of the Generalitat assures that “he was making calls”, but the reality of his communications, analyzed by elDiario.es in the documentary, reflects that between 6:58 p.m. and 7:34 p.m. he does not speak to anyone. He even does not answer a call from the former minister Salomé Pradas at 7:10 p.m. Just a few minutes before, Pradas receives the news that in Paiporta people “are drowning.” Why don't you pick up the phone from your counselor? If Mazón was in his office working – something that the eyewitness contacted by elDiario.es denies – is it possible that he did not answer the call from the councilor who was in charge of managing the worst catastrophe in the Valencian Community in the 21st century?
After that 36-minute silence, between 6:58 p.m. and 7:34 p.m., the president does pick up the phone from his regional secretary of Infrastructure and Mazón's right-hand man in that area, Javier Sendra, who at that moment is being an eyewitness of the flooding of the Generalitat Railways command center in Paiporta. Sendra's call to the head of the Consell is a kind of activation for Mazón, who then makes four calls in four minutes. Call the regional secretary of the Presidency, José Manuel Cuenca, at 7:41 p.m.; at 7:42 p.m., to the general director of the cabinet secretariat, Pilar Montes; at 7:43 p.m., to the Minister of the Interior, Salomé Pradas, and at 7:44 p.m., to the general director of Organization, María Jesús García Frigols.
All these mobile phone calls are striking because, for example, García Frigols is present at the Palau de la Generalitat, and also because it is from that moment on that the official car and Mazón's escort are mobilized to go to the Cecopi. If he is in the Palau, why does he use his cell phone to talk to the General Director of Organization, who should be next to him? Do you make these calls on the way to your office?
After almost a year, the president has not given a reliable version of his whereabouts at those key moments. However, the testimonies collected by elDiario.es, that of a witness who places his arrival at the Palau de la Generalitat after 7:45 p.m. and that of a police source who points out that Mazón moved from El Ventorro to his house, offer a coherent alternative story. The Generalitat insists on denying it without providing evidence to refute it.
At this point, trusting the word of Mazón and his team is a real act of faith, taking into account the changes in the version they have been offering about their role on the day of the catastrophe and, in particular, about everything surrounding their food at El Ventorro. If at first, the Presidency of the Generalitat assured that the lunch that Mazón had attended was of a personal nature, days later it was said that it was of a professional nature and that his companion was the journalist Maribel Vilaplana. When the invoice for the agape was requested, the argument was resorted to that Mazón was not participating in it as president of the Generalitat, but as leader of the PP in the Valencian Community in order to hide the invoice. A year later, that document still has not been made public. Neither the president's official call log nor the itinerary of his official car have been released at this time.
Regarding the duration of the meal, the head of the Consell has never given explanations and the little that is known is from Maribel Vilaplana, who has also been changing her version. First he said that it was finished around 5:00 p.m., then around 6:00 p.m., and in the letter that forced his summons as a witness before the Catarroja judge, he stated that he said goodbye to the president between 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.
What there is no doubt is that at 8:11 p.m., the Generalitat launched the massive alert message to mobile phones. He did it, as the investigating judge has confirmed, late and badly. At that time, dozens of people had already died or were drowning. At 8:28 p.m., a totally confused Carlos Mazón arrived at the Cecopi meeting. As the images accessed by elDiario.es show and are part of the documentary, Minister Salomé Pradas and the technicians have to update a visibly tired president. After 9:30 p.m., Mazón gives his second speech about the situation. Rescue teams cannot enter Utiel, Paiporta or Catarroja. Nothing can be done now.
Here you can watch the documentary 'Where was Mazón?' by elDiario.es in co-production with Barret Films, Cosabona Films and Calibrando
Furthermore, this Friday the 24th in Madrid and Monday the 27th in Valencia elDiario.es will premiere the documentary exclusively and in cinema for its members.