The time Maribel Vilaplana removed her car from the parking: 7.47pm This confirms something known: that Vilaplana has lied several times about the timeline of events since she and Mazón met for lunch. It highlights a terrible narrative: that the interest in the time wasted by President Mazón – he did not answer calls and it is not known where he was between 6.57 pm and 6.57 pm. and 19:34 – has to do with what he did more than what he didn’t do, when adjudicating a failure to appear. A sticky reaction is unleashed that has to do with sensationalism, as if the figure of 229 deaths were not already, in itself, sensational. And, finally, it continues to place Vilaplana in the headlines, of which it cannot be said that he is a victim but is a witness to the incompetence, immorality and old-fashionedness of a politician who, warned of crucial hours, gave priority to free time. Being a spectator of negligence does not make anyone guilty. Mazón was able to play slot machines, sleep in the bathroom or lean against the car in Vilaplana and watch coils while Vilaplana worked on the inside, as he says he did. Where there was no Mazón he was working. Where Vilaplana was, however, doesn’t matter: he didn’t have to go to Cecopi. The relevant question is not why Vilaplana lied, but why his lie prevailed over decisions that ended up costing lives. Out of nervousness, out of shame, to protect Mazón, whatever the reason: if he had told the truth from the beginning, no one would have been saved. What happens with Vilaplana reveals a familiar pattern: power protects itself by shifting interest to a minor but recognizable figure. For some reason it is necessary to know where Maribel Vilaplana, and only Maribel Vilaplana, was doing and what she was doing, from the moment she left the restaurant until she took the car off the parking? If they had been together in that period, where would the intimacy of Mazón, the absent president in the middle of the dana, end and that of Vilaplana, then an anonymous citizen, begin?
