The judge of Catarroja (Valencia), who criminally investigates the 2024 damages, Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, asked the company that manages the car park in the center of Valencia where presidentCarlos Mazón, of the PP, welcomed the day of the tragedy of the journalist Maribel Vilaplana, the ticket certifying at what time the informant left his vehicle and at what time he picked it up, according to a resolution known this Thursday.
The judge gives three days to the company Interparking Hispania SA, which manages the 24-hour Glorieta car park, in Plaza Tetuán in Valencia, to deliver the “duly accredited ticket, receipt or report of the entry and exit, on 29 October 2024, of Maribel Vilaplana’s vehicle”, according to the ruling.
The move comes after the journalist’s statement last Monday before the court investigating the 2024 flood, which caused 229 deaths. During his appearance as a witness, a condition that forced him to tell the truth, Vilaplana acknowledged that he was missing his parking ticket and promised to provide his license plate number so that the company that manages the establishment could prove it when he collected his car. The journalist admitted that she remained in this facility to chat with the president, than before They had talked about football —she is a councilor for Levante UD— and that he did not reveal where he would go after their meeting.
After a meal lasting almost four hours (from three to a quarter past seven) at the El Ventorro restaurant, in which Vilaplana assures that the damage was not talked about and that it developed while the Poyo ravine overflowed, the genesis of the deadly natural disaster, Mazón and the journalist walked the five minutes that separate the place from the car park. Shortly afterwards, starting at 6.57pm, the most enigmatic period of the day begins: 37 minutes in which president now resigned He was held incommunicado and disappeared. To this day, it is still unknown what Mazón did between 6:57 p.m. and 7:34 p.m.; He arrived at the Palau de la Generalitat at almost 8pm, as EL PAÍS reported.
Eleven minutes after the appearance of the head of the Consell in the headquarters of the Valencian Executive, the Cecopi – the body convened by the Generalitat to coordinate the crisis – took the most important decision of the day, sending the massive alarm on mobile phones, which was published on the terminals at 8.11pm, when most of the missing were already dead. The president arrived at the crisis unit, located in L’Eliana (Valencia), at 8.28pm.
The version in which Mazón accompanies Vilaplana to the parking lot after leaving El Ventorro represents the last twist in a year in this story. The journalist changed her story three times about what happened on the afternoon when Valencia was flooded. A month after the storm, Vilaplana claimed to have said goodbye to Mazón at 5.45pm. She later corrected herself in an open letter and said an hour had passed. And finally, after learning that the magistrate was calling her as a witness, it transpired that the president He accompanied her to the parking lot where she had her car.
The judicial declaration of the owner of El Ventorro as a witness, accepted by the judge this week, together with the appearance of six high-ranking officials from Mazón’s hard core, could clarify this imprecise chronology.
The judge’s diligence in requesting the parking fine comes at the request of the lawyer Joaquín Esteve, who represents three victims. Two weeks ago, this lawyer promoted the order of the Provincial Court of Valencia which accepted Vilaplana’s testimony as a witness. The investigating judge had previously refused, arguing that this meant shifting the focus of the investigations to the president. Being incompetent, the leader can only be investigated by the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) after the motivated presentation of the instructor. Although the magistrate offered the head of the Consell the opportunity to appear voluntarily as an accused three times, Mazón refused.
Now, this lawyer asks the judge to call as a witness the mayor of Cullera, the socialist Jordi Mayor, whom Mazón called at 6.28pm. from El Ventorro, as the lawyer confirmed to this newspaper. The lawyer wants the first mayor to clarify the conversation he had with the president. The mayor then reported that the leader had told him: “we are here and your name came up”, without going into details.
Esteve also asks the instructor to testify the mayor of Utiel, Ricardo Gabaldón, who will testify before Ruiz Tobarra, although no date has been set. The lawyer recalls that Vilaplana explained in court that he had received a video on his cell phone through a family chat, which began at 5.30 pm, with some images of Utiel after the Magro river overflowed. The journalist assured that she had not opened the link, although she responded with a restaurant emoticon. Subsequently Mazón communicates with Pradas, with the president of the Provincial Council of Valencia, Vicente Mompó, of the PP, and with the ombudsman (spokesman) popular in the Valencian Cortes, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, who some pools place in the race for the succession of the baron.
After a year of investigations, Judge Catarroja indicted only two former senior officials of the Generalitat: the Minister of Justice and the Interior during the storm, Salomé Pradas, and her deputy, the former director general of Emergencies, Emilio Argüeso. To try to contain criticism of his handling of the disaster, Mazón fired both four weeks after the incident.
