What did the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, do while the province of Valencia was flooded? The answer to one of the main enigmas of dana may be close. The Valencia Court has ordered the statement as a witness in the case that investigates the deadly cold drop of Maribel Vilaplana, the journalist who ate with the popular baron for more than three and a half hours at the central El Ventorro restaurant on October 29, 2024.
The Second Section of this court has partially upheld the appeal of a private accusation and gives the green light to hear Vilaplana’s story in the case being investigated by the judge of Catarroja (Valencia) Nuria Ruiz Tobarra. The journalist will appear in this court on November 3.
The six magistrates that make up the Valencia Court now revoke the decision of the instructor Ruiz Tobarra, who rejected the journalist’s statement last May with the argument that it would mean shifting the focus of the investigations to Mazón. The popular baron, who is certified, can only be charged by the Superior Court of Justice of Valencia (Tsjcv) after the reasoned presentation of the instructor. The Catarroja magistrate also considered that listening to Vilaplana as a witness would contribute little because there was no evidence that Mazón had activated the hands-free of his cell phone at the meal and, therefore, the informant was not aware of the relevant conversations that the leader could have had about the management of the outpouring.
To approve Vilaplana’s statement, the Valencia Court has taken into account. The journalist revealed in the letter that on the day of the crime she left El Ventorro between 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. An hour later than he had acknowledged ten months before. Then, through a source authorized by the informant, Vilaplana stated that the meeting with the presidentwhich was held in a reserved area of the restaurant, took place between 3:00 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. And that, during this period, Mazón spoke “several times” by telephone with interlocutors, whom Vilaplana did not identify.
During the extensive lunch, the president offered Vilaplana, a former Channel 9 presenter turned public speaking teacher, the direction of the Valencian public television À Punt.
When appearing as a witness, Vilaplana must tell the truth and answer all the parties: judge, prosecutor, popular and private accusations and the defenses of the two main ex-high officials of Mazón investigated: the Minister of Justice and Interior during the flood, Salomé Pradas; and who was his second during the storm, the former director of Emergencies, Emilio Argüeso.
Vilaplana’s story in the Catarroja court may be interesting, according to the Valencia Court. “It cannot be ruled out that, questioned under the conditions and with the guarantees of the criminal process, [la periodista] may offer details or nuances that could be of interest to the investigation. Her testimony, moreover, could offer information that only she, the president of the Generalitat and her interlocutors could know,” the court order states. The resolution continues: “the diligence [comparecencia de Vilaplana] in question appears to be apparently relevant and suitable, a prioriin order to provide relevant information about the decision-making process followed on the afternoon of October 29, which is the subject of the ongoing criminal investigation.”
The court agrees with the investigating magistrate that the president of the Generalitat, due to his status as a certified person, “is outside the subjective scope of the investigation he directs,” but clarifies that this “does not prevent proceedings from being carried out that are relevant and useful to the investigation.”
The Catarroja judge has twice offered Mazón to voluntarily testify as an investigator. A possibility that the head of the Consell has ruled out.
The court considers Vilaplana’s version of the calls that Mazón made from El Ventorro interesting. He president He communicated on four occasions with the then counselor Pradas, the person most responsible for managing the misfortune, from the restaurant, between 3:00 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. The Court also considers it important to know “everything” that Vilaplana knew about the Cecopi meeting, the Generalitat body that coordinated the tragedy and from where the massive message was sent to mobile phones. It’s Alert. The notification, which has become the key to the investigations, was sent when most of the 299 dead had died. The instructor maintains that, if it had been referred earlier, the number of victims would have been reduced.
Vilaplana’s statement in court could help reconstruct what Mazón did on the afternoon of that fateful day. After leaving El Ventorro, at 6:45 p.m., the president It went to the Generalitat – according to the Consell – and from there, to the emergency coordination center of L’Eliana (19,597 inhabitants), where the Cecopi was held. Mazón joined this crisis device at 8:28 p.m., 17 minutes after the mass alert was sent to Es Alert mobile phones.
“At the moment, it is necessary to advance in the investigation (…) and only in the event that the investigating judge detects the concurrence of reinforced, well-founded indications of criminality against the president and, having presented the reasoned exposition, the TSJ shared the judge’s assessment, it would be possible to extend the subjective scope of the investigation to it and the Superior Court of Justice would be the competent body for this,” recalls the Court.
Refusal to charge the head of the Aemet
The Valencia Court has also rejected the request of the popular accusation exercised by the Valores party to charge the head of Climatology of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) in the Valencian Community, José Ángel Núñez. A senior official who, in his witness statement last June, denounced The movement is a boost to the Catarroja judge who, in her investigations, has deactivated the theory of the information blackout, which maintains that, if the Generalitat reacted late and poorly, it was because of the delay in information from state organizations such as Aemet or the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (Chj). The judge, who has also refused to accuse the Government delegate in Valencia, Pilar Bernabé, has dismantled this idea in her records.
The Valencia Court has also discarded the request of the popular accusation of Vox for the testimony of nine engineers and architects who appeared in the investigation commission of the Senate’s dana.
In another resolution known this Thursday, the court partially upholds the appeals of the Prosecutor’s Office and the two former senior Mazón officials investigated – Pradas and Argüeso – and revokes the instructor’s decision to force the popular accusations that may appear in the proceedings to do so under the legal direction of those who are already in the case.
