Former Valencian president Carlos Mazón has consistently given contradictory accounts of his actions on the afternoon of the devastating floods. Faced with a tragedy that claimed 230 lives, he concealed, with various excuses, that he had lunch with Maribel Vilaplana. He also lied about his arrival at the Palau de la Generalitat and the Cecopio emergency response center. The journalist, for her part, has not been entirely truthful from the outset. A month after the floods, she stated that she had said goodbye to Mazón at 5:45 p.m., but almost a year later, she broke her silence with a statement, delaying the end of their lunch at the El Ventorro restaurant by an additional hour. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that Mazón had accompanied Vilaplana to the parking lot around 6:45 p.m., despite her having implied in her open letter that the former president had remained at the restaurant.

A new development has occurred in the investigation by the judge in Catarroja into the handling of the DANA storm in the Valencian Community. With the aim of clarifying the chronology of the afternoon of October 29th, the investigating judge has requested that the owner of El Ventorro, the Valencia restaurant where Carlos Mazón and journalist Maribel Vilaplana ate, provide information about the meeting and the private room where the lunch took place. Specifically, she is requesting the bill for the meal and details of the room's dimensions, along with photographs, where the acting head of the Valencian government and the journalist were eating as the torrential rains began claiming their first victims. But why does the judge want photos of this private room? In a ruling sent to the parties this Monday, the investigating judge points out that these photos are crucial to determining what those who were with Mazón at the restaurant (from his bodyguards to the owner, including Vilaplana) could and could not have heard. The judge also wants to clarify a contradiction, given that during her testimony... the journalist stated that he couldn't hear Mazón's telephone conversations because Mazón would get up and "step aside" to talk more discreetly, taking advantage of the fact that the private room was spacious, while The restorer said Friday She stated that she did not hear Mazón on the phone at any point, that she did not see him get up from the table, and that the space was small. Ruiz Tobarra has also requested the bill and a list of the meal's contents in order to determine "the extent of the meal." The judge has also requested that the WhatsApp messages exchanged on the day of the storm between Juanfran Pérez Llorca, the candidate to replace Mazón as head of the Generalitat, and former councilor Salomé Pradas, who was his deputy in the Department of Justice and the Interior, be reviewed. Furthermore, she has requested the bill for the corporate phone of the Finestrat City Council, where Pérez Llorca is mayor. From this phone, the Secretary General of the Valencian Community PP also called Mazón at 6:57 p.m. and contacted Pradas at 6:57 p.m. (he didn't answer), 6:58 p.m. (14 seconds of conversation), and 6:59 p.m. (9 seconds). The judge is working with the PP politician, who offered to provide the information on Friday, to obtain these details.

Ventorro 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 direct 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. When questioned by one of the private prosecutors, he asserted that he did not see Mazón "worried." In fact, he indicated that lunch ended at 4:45 p.m., a quarter of an hour before the start of the Cecopio (a regional 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 admitted, 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.

The great mystery that remains unsolved a year after the devastating storm is what Carlos Mazón did from the time he accompanied Maribel Vilaplana to a parking lot near El Ventorro around 6:30 a.m. until he arrived at the Cecopio emergency center at 8:30 a.m. During that time, the journalist could provide relevant information if she could pinpoint the exact time she said goodbye to the then-acting president of the Valencian Community. However, Vilaplana did not bring the parking ticket when she testified in court. She did provide a copy of her bank statement, but it did not show the time she paid. Given this, the judge in Catarroja requested the credit card number used to pay for the service in order to confirm the exact time with the company. In the coming days, we may finally know something that neither Vilaplana herself nor the head of the Valencian government has been willing to clarify.

The president of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, who will go down in history as the one who failed to appear during the DANA storm, explained to the commission investigating his inaction during the deadly flash flood that he went from the restaurant (now with a name that, unfortunately for the owners, is unbearable) to the Palau de la Generalitat, without bodyguards and without going home. "And why didn't the phone ring at 7:10 p.m. and 7:37 p.m. for Regional Minister Pradas?" asked Compromís deputy Àgueda Micó. "Perhaps I was walking and had my phone in my backpack," he replied.

The management of À Punt. That was the reason given by both Carlos Mazón and Maribel Vilaplana's entourage to justify their controversial lunch at El Ventorro. A meal that wasn't confirmed until ten days later. The journalist asked the Valencian president to keep quiet about who she had lunch with, and he did so until the media made it public. She didn't want to be implicated in a tragedy she knew nothing about. Therefore, a compelling reason had to be given for a lunch that lasted almost four hours. But Mazón had already extended that offer two weeks earlier. Specifically, on October 11, eighteen days before the DANA storm, as ARA has been able to confirm and as it had already pointed out. Eldiario.es

On the first anniversary of the DANA storm, the protest against the Valencian government ended outside El Ventorro restaurant. The nearly four-hour lunch between Carlos Mazón and Maribel Vilaplana at this establishment has become the most striking evidence of the negligent handling of the situation by the head of the Valencian government on October 29th of last year. So much so that its owner, Alfredo Romero, decided remove the sign from the entrance to reduce the influx of citizens who stop in front of the establishment every day to photograph it.

Given the anomaly of Carlos Mazón remaining president of the Valencian Community a year after the devastating floods, and especially after the public humiliation he suffered at last week's memorial service for the victims, this Monday could bring another disastrous day. The testimony before the judge in Catarroja by journalist Maribel Vilaplana, who shared lunch and a four-hour conversation with the president while dozens of Valencians were being swept away by the floodwaters, is shaping up to be key to his political future. Vilaplana is the person best positioned to explain the president's behavior during the critical hours of the flood, who can report what calls he answered and what his level of concern was, or rather, his lack of concern. Unlike the officials charged by the judge—Regional Minister Salomé Pradas and her deputy, Emilio Argüeso—Vilaplana is obligated to tell the truth, as Mazón owes her no political loyalty. On the contrary, it can be said that the Valencian president has forever tarnished his image and jeopardized his professional career. Vilaplana, therefore, could be the weak link through which Mazón's indictment begins to take shape. While not imminent, the groundwork could be laid this Monday. It's important to note that Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra has thus far avoided directly investigating Mazón because she wanted to gather much more information before taking action, and that it was the Provincial Court that expedited the process at the request of the prosecution. However, the amount of evidence accumulating against Mazón is already becoming overwhelming. Pradas herself clarified on Friday that she had indeed informed the president promptly that the possibility of sending an alert to mobile phones was being discussed, contrary to what he has stated in several interviews. If Vilaplana states that he remembers hearing something about an alert, or that Mazón himself made a comment about it, it would mean the end of Mazón's escape.

"Please, don't drag me into this mess." This is what Maribel Vilaplana asked Carlos Mazón when she arrived home after the controversial lunch on the day of the DANA storm and realized the severity of the floods, which would ultimately claim 229 lives. The fact is that the conflicting accounts given by both the Valencian president and the journalist have transformed the nearly four-hour lunch at El Ventorro into the most compelling evidence of the negligent management by the head of the Valencian government on October 29th of last year. And this has led Vilaplana—who suffered an anxiety attack on Saturday that required her to be hospitalized for a few hours—to testify this Monday morning before the judge investigating the handling of the DANA storm.

What else could we possibly know about this lunch at El Ventorro (another restaurant that, like La Camarga, is now considered cursed by the powerful and blessed, ironically, by the common folk)?

The Council of the Generalitat Valenciana has approved the decorations for police merit that it will award this year, a handful of medals, diplomas and honorary distinctions that will go to the police officers who, it is assumed, have done a better, or more outstanding, or more heroic job, within their obligation to serve the citizens, coexistence and the common good. Among the officers who will receive them are the bodyguards who accompanied the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, on October 29, during the hours he was absent from everything while The Valencian Country was devastated by the DANA and 228 people died. The Generalitat personnel on duty that day will also be honored. According to the same police unit proposing the decorations, and according to the government that approved them, they performed a job worthy of applause and reward.

"Our friend Mazón recommended this place to us. A real success. Tasty dishes and after-dinner conversations over a cigar and a drink. A place to turn off your mobile phone and relax. Good value for money. I would like to show the bill, but I can't find it right now." This is one of the ironic reviews that appear on Google about El Ventorro, the restaurant where the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, had lunch with the journalist Maribel Vilaplana in the middle of the DANA storm, extending the after-dinner conversation until six in the afternoon, with deaths and disappearances in different towns in the Valencian Country.