Maribel Vilaplana, the journalist who ate for almost four hours with the president of the Generalitat Carlos Mazón on October 29, 2024, when the damage left 229 dead in Valencia, took the car out that day at 7:47 p.m. This is revealed by the charge of 15.10 euros on the card with which the informant paid for the service, according to an order handled by the judge of Catarroja (Valencia) investigating the tragedy, Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, to which EL PAÍS has had access.
The amount confirms that the journalist left the car in the parking lot around 2:45 p.m., about 15 minutes before arriving at the El Ventorro restaurant. And that, after lunch and a walk through the center of Valencia with Mazón, he took out his vehicle at 7:47 p.m. Only 24 minutes later, the Generalitat made the most relevant decision of the day: sending the massive alert to mobile phones to inform the population of the magnitude of the misfortune. That notification was snuck into the terminals at 8:11 p.m. By then, most of the dana victims had already died. This shipment has become the cornerstone of the investigations, because the judge maintains that, if it had been sent sooner, lives would have been saved.
A testimony full of contradictions
When he appeared before the Catarroja judge as a witness, a condition that obliged him to tell the truth, Vilaplana confirmed his late departure from El Ventorro. “We walked a distance when leaving the restaurant, the parking lot is next door, the distance is short […]. I left the restaurant around 6:45 p.m., it wasn’t raining. Everything was completely normal, that’s why it’s hard for me to retain information,” he explained to the instructor on November 3.
When leaving the restaurant, Mazón and Vilaplana—according to what she told the judge—walked “five or ten minutes” to the parking. They chatted about football and he later spoke on the phone. Since he said goodbye to president10 or 15 minutes passed. The journalist entered the parking lot alone, paid the ticket, “turned off the computer properly” and “fiddled with her cell phone.” Then, he left the subway heading home.
The time the former television presenter left the parking lot coincides, furthermore, with the fact that Mazón arrived at the Palau de la Generalitat on the day of the dana shortly before 8:00 p.m., showed up and left shortly after for Cecopi, where she arrived at 8:28 p.m. The Vilaplana march was recorded four minutes after Mazón returned a call to the then Minister of Justice and Interior and main defendant in the case, Salomé Pradas. The communication was recorded at 7:43 p.m. and was the response to two previous calls made by the head of Cecopi, which were not answered, at 7:10 p.m. and 7:36 p.m.
On the 17th, when he appeared before the Congressional investigative commission on the dana, Mazón justified that he did not answer some calls because he had his cell phone in his backpack. The Penal Code includes in its article 502.3 a prison sentence of six months to one year or a fine of six to twelve months for lying in this forum.
The time of the Vilaplana march does not clarify the so-called enigma of the 37 minutes (18:57-19:34) in which the then head of the Consell was incommunicado – he did not answer calls. Before calling the then counselor, the president contacted by phone (at 7:34 p.m.) the regional secretary of Infrastructure and Transport, Javier Sendra, directly responsible for MetroValencia, whose command center in Paiporta at that time was already flooded.
The parking information also does not clear up doubts about what Mazón did from the time he left the restaurant until he arrived at the Palau de la Generalitat. And, from there, he went to Cecopi – where the crisis was coordinated – in L’Eliana (Valencia). The president landed in this body that managed the tragedy 17 minutes after the alert was sent.
The new information reveals striking changes in the versions of the two protagonists of this story. The journalist has modified her story three times in one year about what she did during the afternoon when the province of Valencia was flooded. A month after the storm, Vilaplana maintained that he said goodbye to Mazón at 5:45 p.m. Then she corrected herself and said it was an hour later. And finally, after learning that the magistrate was summoning her as a witness, a condition that obliged her to tell the truth, .
After the flood and prompted by the investigations of the Catarroja judge, Mazón has also changed his chronology several times about what he did on the fateful afternoon. Initially, he stated that he went to the Palau at 5:00 p.m. Later, he extended his arrival at the Valencian Government headquarters an hour later. And, later, he indicated that he landed at Cecopi “just after 7:00 p.m.” In February, the Generalitat leaked an image showing that Mazón arrived at this center at 8:28 p.m.
The magistrate has offered the popular baron three times the possibility of voluntarily declaring himself under investigation. By being seized, the head of the acting Consell can only be charged by the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) after the reasoning of the instructor.
The time of removal of the car from Vilaplana arises from crossing the data that the journalist presented in court – where she testified as a witness on November 3 – with the list of exits that the company that manages the garage in the Plaza de Tetuán in Valencia, Interparking Hispania SA, contributed to the magistrate. In one of the boxes, there is an amount of 15.10 euros, which indicates that a car was removed at 7:47 p.m. The pass is equivalent to parking for just over five hours. And it means that, after the almost four-hour meal, the journalist and Mazón spent more than an hour traveling the distance between the restaurant and the parking lot, which can be done in 10 minutes on foot.
