There are Mondays, but few like that.
Three days ago, an email appeared in the newspaper's mailbox at 10:08 a.m. with a key subject line: "NEWS."
It seems easy to work like this in a newspaper, and it is.
The
was accompanied by a document with 17 pages along with a small text: “Good morning.
I enclose a PDF link to make you aware of a story where the mayor creates a false profile to insult the townspeople.
Next Wednesday, March 30, an extraordinary plenary session will be held in Las Ventas de Retamosa to deal with the alleged authorship.”
End.
Start.
Las Ventas de Retamosa is a municipality in La Mancha with some 4,500 residents, 45 minutes by car from Madrid and half an hour from Toledo, with a large industrial estate, a historic center of low-rise houses, two- or three-storey flats, single-family stone chalets , exposed brick, white, some colored.
Sales is known, above all, because Bolton is located here, the factory of the Ketchup Prima brands, the WC Net plungers, or the intimate Chilly gels, famous for their slogan: “In my innermost being, I want Chilly”.
The town, say the oldest of the place, has multiplied in recent years.
If in the nineties there were around 500 neighbors, now there are almost 5,000 inhabitants;
most of them are middle-aged, with children, freelancers, civil servants, and workers from the big local industry.
They all know each other.
Moreover, there is a public Facebook group with the name of the town.
They are 4,016 members.
Almost everyone is in here.
They narrate their problems, plans, errands, various needs.
The last message is from just a few hours ago: “Good morning”, writes the neighbor Gema Martín.
"I need a bricklayer to do some reforms at home."
The neighbors, seeing him, immediately pass him the phones of relatives: "I recommend Jaime and Héctor, take it."
"We do it to you."
A virtual bulletin board, in keeping with the new times.
But – there are always buts on social networks – in May 2020 a new local appeared on the forum: the neighbor Matías González.
The account, without further details, used in his profile picture a drawn face of a very handsome, blond young man with blue eyes and a whitish goatee.
In the image above, already as a human, Matías skis dressed in a red and white suit.
End of profile.
The ten neighbors consulted say that Matías did not accept digital friendships.
That he only spoke on the forum board, in his own way.
On January 9, 2021, for example, the countryman Martín suggested to the City Council to clean the street of him, up to the top of snow due to the great snowfall of
Filomena.
He needed to do the shopping for his children.
There was no way out the door.
Matías González, however, replied: "One day in solitary confinement and you already have food problems?"
Another afternoon, the neighbor Sagrario criticized the current mayor for the management of these issues.
“Enjoy what you voted for,” she wrote.
Immediately, Matías entered the rag: “We enjoy the inheritance of YOUR FRIEND who left the town ruined.
Keep shamelessness".
Matías, with the passage of time, was letting go, and rebuked with more and more confidence.
He took to insulting the neighbors most critical of the current corporation.
To the neighbor Rosa: "We are better off without people like you in town."
To a couple: "Fuck you, firecrackers."
And so.
Screenshot of the false profile on the Facebook social network that was dedicated to underestimating the residents of the town of Las Ventas de Retamosa.
“Who the hell is this Matías González?” asked most of the residents affected by the barrabasadas during the last two years.
It was obvious that Matías lived in the town.
He knew them, he knew about their lives, the names of his children.
How far do they work?
One day, a neighbor found the key, fed up.
"Show your face", they began to blurt out in the comments.
On March 22, the City Council, which also has an official Facebook page, published an announcement informing residents of a charity gala in favor of the Ukrainian people: "Who's in?"
A group of neighbors recommended a private dance school in the municipality to the municipal corporation.
The City Council, however, passed by.
Very upset, the neighbor Ana Monroy showed her complaints in public: "I seem to see some discrimination by not having this school."
And again, Matías González, faster than anyone, appeared first in the forum: "Your daughter participated in a gala the other day and she was a disgrace."
The WhatsApp groups of family members from the town were talking about nothing else: “Matías again!”
"Him again!"
Would Matías also be in these groups? A mole in each house?
Namely.
On March 12, a neighbor who prefers to remain anonymous, and already tired of Matías, tried to send a friend to Matías González, reluctant to this type of digital relationship since he appeared on the municipal forums.
"And he accepted!"
The neighbor immediately went to Matías' information tab, hidden from the rest of the neighbors.
His date of birth appeared here: January 15, 1980. As if that were not enough, Matías also had a telephone number.
The neighbor copied it and quickly pasted it on her cell phone.
She was nervous, she couldn't believe it: "Ana Gómez, mayor."
Is Matías González the mayor of the town?
Like lightning, a video began to circulate throughout the municipality with these details, house by house.
The owner of the dance company posted the video on the City Council forum: “Wow, wow.
Who is Matías González?
There are revenges worthy of Paco Martínez Soria.
“A liar is caught before a lame man, eh, Mr. Matías?
I say ma'am."
Dozens of tinkling comments began to flood the forum.
The opposition, without thinking, activated the machinery.
Matías González's days were numbered.
The PP writes on its Facebook profile: "Good evening, neighbors, presumably our highest authority was hiding behind a false profile that insulted the neighbors."
Citizens: "It has passed three towns."
The PSOE: "We have always openly condemned all non-democratic acts."
And all of them ask for an extraordinary plenary session.
The mayor, in the background of the image, in the extraordinary plenary session held this Wednesday at the City Hall.
DAVID EXPOSITO
Matías González, meanwhile, remains silent.
The mayor of Las Ventas de Retamosa is Ana García.
She governs with a neighborhood group after reaching 40% of the votes in 2019. Hours after it went viral, she herself publishes a statement, denying that she is Matías González: “As a computer scientist, a profession to which I have dedicated myself for more than 30 years, and accustomed to the use of social networks, it would not occur to me to put a telephone when that option is not mandatory”.
Later, for the sake of his defense, he published a petition on the Change.org platform for all of Spain: "Obligation of requesting a DNI from a social media account."
He has 13 support signatures.
On March 14, in the middle of the afternoon, Matías González disappeared without explanation.
He no longer exists.
There is no trace of the man who turned the town upside down.
A data.
To create a profile on Facebook, the social network always asks for a phone number or an email, where the platform can confirm the veracity of the account.
If the user opts for the mobile, he will receive a five-digit password to continue with the creation of the account.
This Wednesday, the mayor summoned the opposition to an extraordinary plenary session, open to the entire town and at an inappropriate hour: two in the afternoon.
Up to three municipal police officers with bulletproof vests attend the Town Hall assembly hall.
Six residents of the town sit in the seats of the public: "She is Matías", they whisper.
“She cannot be recorded”, the agents remind them after observing a mobile that flew over the room like a periscope.
The mayor appears, the last one.
Activate the microphone.
She looks at her neighbors and the councilors, not at all nervous:
“I want to make it clear that I am not behind Matías González.
A rumble begins in the plenary.
“The picture of my numbers is easy and manageable,” he continues.
“If I have not reported it, it is because I have been told of the null viability of this complaint.
Still, I reported it to Facebook."
The mayor criticizes the opposition for bringing her here.
“I am not going to answer questions, because they have not been delivered on time.”
Suddenly, the cell phone of the Town Hall secretary rings.
The secretary does not hesitate.
He picks up the phone.
"What if it's Matías?" He would think.
“You always call me the one that he is not him.
I can not answer you.
I'll call you later, ”he answers the device.
Hanging up, the mayor speaks again:
-Let's keep going.
The public does not believe.
The PP councilor, very pissed off, takes the floor:
"Why haven't you filed a complaint?
“I don't need to keep my mouth shut.
―Do you know Matías?
“If you are so clear that it is me, prove it.
"Does the phone number belong to you?"
-Yes.
“Is it meant for the mayor?
-Yes.
―I propose a vote to report all together to the police station the alleged impersonation of your phone.
“No, there is no vote.
A neighbor yells: "He has to resign, damn it!"
The plenary lasts 25 minutes.
The mayor, annoyed and without allowing the rest of the councilors to intervene, says: "It's over, good morning."
When she leaves, she doesn't want to attend to this newspaper either: “I have nothing to say.
The press is not there when I need it”.
She enters the elevator accompanied by a local police officer and, as in the
Rain of Stars
program , she disappears.
Who knows if, when she changes floors, she is already another character.
Matías González's profile on Facebook.
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