The owner of El Ventorro says that Mazón and Vilaplana were the last customers to leave between 6:30 and 7:00 pm

BarcelonaVentorro has unwittingly become the most striking evidence of Carlos Mazón's negligent handling of the situation on the day of the DANA storm. In this centrally located restaurant in Valencia, the then-president of the Valencian government had lunch for over four hours with journalist Maribel Vilaplana, even though he was aware, as he admitted, of the critical situation in Utiel. He did not cancel the meal, although, as revealed by ARA, The broadcaster had already rejected his offer to head À Punt two weeks earlierThe owner of the establishment, Alfredo Romero, who was summoned to the Catarroja courthouse this Friday, explained that the two diners left the restaurant "between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. approximately," when there were no other customers left. He also confirmed that the Valencian president was in no hurry to leave, as Vilaplana had already stated in his testimony a few weeks ago. In response to questions from one of the private prosecutors, he asserted that he did not see Mazón "worried" nor did he observe that he was in "a hurry" to leave. In fact, he indicated that lunch ended at 4:45 p.m., a quarter of an hour before the start of the Cecopio (a local emergency plan), and that the conversation after lunch lasted for another couple of hours. Romero, who was aware of the approaching storms, sent two of his employees home around 6:00 p.m., as they lived in the towns affected by the DANA (isolated high-level depression). "Before it started to rain, I told them to leave," he acknowledged, without clarifying whether he spoke with the president about the weather. He also revealed that Mazón was the first to arrive at the restaurant, between 2:15 and 2:30 p.m., alone and without an escort, and that Vilaplana arrived later, around 2:50 or 3:00 p.m., which may help to understand What time did the journalist leave the parking lot? based on the hours he spent at the restaurant.

Romero explained that he personally attended to Mazón and Vilaplana and that he entered the private room some seven or eight times, but he assured, in response to questions from the investigating judge, Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, that he did not hear any of the calls made to or received by the head of the Consell. The magistrate had summoned Romero to find out if he had overheard any conversations between Mazón and the Minister of the Interior, Salomé Pradas, the only person charged in the case. She did so after Vilaplana testified that he was "the only person who went in and out of the room where they were" and that he even stayed for a while while the president signed some documents that a Generalitat official brought to the restaurant. "I don't remember seeing him talking on the phone. I have no recollection whatsoever," he stated.

The Generalitat, not the PP, reserved the table

The declarant also indicated that he sent the invoice to the PP, although at first Mazón claimed it was a "working lunch" after hiding and to give different versions of the controversial mealIn any case, Romero admitted that the reservation was made by the Generalitat (the Catalan government), which contradicts Mazón's latest version of events, claiming it was a party event. "I received a call from the Generalitat to reserve a table," Romero said, revealing that it was two or three days prior. "The number of guests wasn't specified, only that it was a table for the president," he added. Romero said he sent the bill the next day or two days later, but since it was a bill and not a receipt, the exact time he left the establishment couldn't be established. His testimony, therefore, doesn't clarify the great mystery of that day: what Mazón did from the time he accompanied Vilaplana in the parking lot after 7:00 p.m. until he arrived at the Cecopio (the Catalan government headquarters) at 8:30 p.m.