Former Central Bank Governor Guillermo Caram comments in Hoy newspaper today on what he calls the unfortunate timing of the government’s decision to take over Spanish electricity company, Union Fenosa, on the eve of the President’s visit to Spain. The President must now prove, says the editorial, that the action was not a diversionary tactic to placate public opinion, nor an attempt to ingratiate himself to the Spanish authorities, in the form of a latter-day Guacanagarix, the indigenous cacique (chief) at the time of the Spanish arrival to Hispaniola who aligned himself with the conquerors and was considered a traitor to his people. The writer compares the sum of US$400 million that was pledged by the government to pay off the Spanish companies with the gold jewelry presented to the Spaniards by the indigenous people at the time of the conquest, in return for worthless mirrors and beads. With no known information on where the funds will come from, the columnist muses that perhaps this deal will become “diluted” once the President returns from Spain. “We will return to the subject once we are convinced that this is not just another government sideshow.”