DIARIO INDEPENDIENTE DE LA MAÑANA

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2007

ENGLISH EDITION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

High Court to rule today on Endesa takeover race ETA hunger-strike prisoner enters final straight Judges consider conditional release for De Juana Chaos A. EATWELL, Madrid The High Court will today decide whether to release Iñaki de Juana Chaos from prison after state prosecutors on Wednesday formally requested that the ETA hit-man be allowed to recover at home from a two-and-a-half month hunger strike. If the panel of 17 penal division judges agrees to the request, De Juana, who has served 18 years for 25 murders, would probably be placed under house arrest and closely monitored by police. Serious concerns about De Juana’s health were raised on Monday when doctors treating him at Madrid’s Doce de Octubre hospital said in a report that his life was at risk. De Juana has not eaten since last November, when the High Court handed down a 12-year sentence for threatening public officials, more than a year after he had been due to be released on parole. Prior to that ruling he had already been on hunger strike for two months and the renewal of his protest has left him in a severely weakened state. Doctors have warned that he could die at any time. Spain’s Socialist government

has said it will “respect” any decision by the court as to whether he should be released. However, the main opposition Popular Party and groups representing victims of ETA’s terrorist campaign have argued that to do so would be to give in to blackmail and could set a dangerous precedent. “What would happen in Spain if all ETA prisoners followed his example?” PP leader Mariano Rajoy asked. Other PP officials argued that

the government, through public prosecutors, has the power to ensure De Juana is not released from prison on humanitarian grounds, especially given the fact that his health problems are selfinflicted. The furor over the ETA member’s hunger strike comes less than a month after the Basque terrorist group broke a ninemonth ceasefire with a bombing at Madrid airport in which two people were killed.

EL PAÍS, Madrid The saga of the battle for control of Endesa is approaching its denouement, with rival bidders Gas Natural and E.ON to be invited to submit enhanced offers to the National Securities Commission at the start of next month. In anticipation of this, Endesa yesterday continued its “Endesa is worth more” campaign in an effort to boost the offer prices by announcing an upward revision of its earnings

estimate for last year and a higher forecast for 2009 profits. Endesa’s share price closed at over ¤4 above the highest current offer for the company. Spain’s largest electricity firm may also pay a bonus to shareholders to attend a key meeting on the proposed removal of a company statute which restricts the voting rights of any single shareholder to 10 percent of its capital. Both offers are conditional on this vote. See ENDESA page 7

Badalona police arrest suspected member of cell aiding Al Qa’ida STAFF REPORTER, Madrid Police in Badalona, Catalonia, on Wednesday arrested a Moroccan man suspected of aiding a terrorist cell that provided financial and logistical support to Al Qa’ida in Iraq. Abdelatif Nekkavi, who was arrested at 6.40am, is thought to be one of the remaining members of a terrorost cell that was partially dismantled in June 2005 in a raid called Operation Tigris. The cell provided false identity documents to radical Islamists traveling to Iraq to receive jihadist training, and supported itself through petty theft and drug trafficking, the Interior Ministry reported. Some of the 11 suspected members of the cell who were arrested in June had undergone the rites associated with suicide terrorists.

How real estate fraud might just clinch the vote CORRUPTION

Pages 4 & 5

JESÚS URIARTE

Severe winter weather warning confirms that cold snap will run The heavy snowfall across Spain yesterday wasn’t enough to stop this swimmer from braving the sea at Playa de la Concha in San Sebastián. But the National Meteorological Institute has warned that more cold weather

is on the way, thanks to an area of low pressure that is expected to bring with it more snow, particularly in the north and center of Spain. The cold weather left 5,000 school kids unable to get to class yesterday, and also

Emergency landing scare at main Barcelona airport STAFF REPORTER, Madrid An Air Nostrum plane made an emergency landing Wednesday at Barcelona’s El Prat airport after its landing gear failed to deploy correctly, civil aviation officials said yesterday. The CRJ200 passenger jet, which had taken off from Pamplona, skidded for 400 meters along the runway before coming to a halt. Two people suffered slight injuries.

“It sounded like tin cans being torn. When it stopped the pilot screamed, ‘Get out of here!’” one of the passengers said. “We were afraid it was going to explode.” Civil aviation officials said they are investigating the incident, particularly after another plane operated by Air Nostrum, the shorthaul domestic division of Spanish flag carrier Iberia, also had difficulties at the Barcelona airport earlier this week.

affected flights from Spanish airports. Madrid’s Barajas airport saw long delays on flights to European countries, and Pamplona airport was obliged to close its runway completely due to heavy snow.

2 / OPINION AND EDITORIAL

EL PAÍS, Thursday, January 25, 2007

EL PAIS

Healing the wounds

PRESIDENT

RAFAEL ROJAS

EDITADO POR DIARIO EL PAÍS, SOCIEDAD LIMITADA Jesús de Polanco CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Juan Luis Cebrián CHIEF OPERATING OFFICERS

Jesús Ceberio & Pedro García Guillén EDITOR

Javier Moreno DEPUTY EDITORS

Vicente Jiménez, Lluís Bassets and Xavier Vidal-Folch EDITOR ENGLISH EDITION

Guy Hedgecoe

Warnings from the OECD THERE IS nothing in the recent half-yearly report on the Spanish economy issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that is not broadly in line with the best-known overviews published in the course of the last two years by Spanish economic analysts. Indeed, continued growth seems assured — at least during the upcoming quarters — at 3.3 percent this year according to forecasts, and 3.1 percent in 2008, due fundamentally to the persistence of relatively low interest rates, the pull of the construction boom (which is showing signs of exhaustion), the pressure of consumer purchasing, and — this being the novelty highlighted by the organization — a less negative contribution from the exterior sector, which will detract only eight-tenths of a point from growth in 2007. The picture is completed by growth in investment, an important drop in the unemployment rate (due mainly to low per-person productivity), and the chronic problem of the exterior deficit, which will amount to 9.8 percent of GDP next year. Given this overall outline of the economy, it is not very hard to guess the general tendency of the warnings issued by the OECD. If the inflation rate is not reduced, the foreign deficit will keep on growing until Spain becomes a society of tourist or professional services, but without added-value products suited to exchange. If per-person productivity does not increase, quality and competitiveness will fall, bringing down with them the market quotas of Spanish products abroad. And if a more restrictive taxation policy is not implemented — this being understood as a greater selectiveness of public investment in the direction of infrastructures, education and R&D in the framework of a general cutback in public spending — then the onset of an eventual economic contraction, be it sudden or gradual, will pose serious problems for public finance. The OECD is entirely right in pointing out that productivity and the added value of an economy both increase in function of investment in education and technology. The screws that have to be tightened then, are those of inflation, selective and effective investment, and a more controlled public sector. The report is also correct in considering that public policies ought to be carefully evaluated by an independent agency in order to minimize the contradictions inherent in a dispersed taxation policy in the hands of various regional governments; and in suggesting an amplification of the period over which pensions are to be calculated. But there are other recommendations that present almost insurmountable political difficulties; for example, that of eliminating the tax rebate on the purchase of housing. This would be the most drastic way of putting an end to the overvalued prices now prevailing in the housing market, but any government would think twice before falling foul of the political penalty inherent in such a move.

The history of the Cuban Revolution is, in some measure, the history of the body of Fidel Castro. It all began more than half a century ago, when the young leader’s muscles prepared to enter Latin American politics via a path of risk and violence. The dream, for some, and nightmare for others, is now ending in a hemorrhage due to “problems of healing” in the intestinal tract. As far as we know, which has never been much, Fidel Castro, in spite of having lived dangerously, never suffered even a slight wound. He has always lived under the threat of assassination, but his health has always been robust. One feature of the Castro myth is a monarchic cult of bodily health, very little in line with Latin American tradition, so full of heedless, sickly heroes such as Bolivar, Martí, Evan Perón, Che Guevara — who all died before the age of 50. Castro’s problems of healing, like those of his regime, are internal. At first sight everything is OK, and only two years ago the doctors were saying he would live to 120, but it seems the hemorrhage cannot be contained. Likewise, according to the January 18 issue of the regime’s official organ Granma, the Cuban economy is growing at a rate of 12.8 percent, “energy self-sufficiency” is just around the corner, and the “forested area” is soon to be doubled. But half a million inhabitants of this wonderful country want to emigrate. In a speech in 2005, Castro obsessively repeated the question: can the Revolution crumble? Can Socialism relapse into the old ways? According to a constitutional amendment introduced in response to the reformist Varela Project, Cuban Socialism is “irrevocable.” But the insistent repetition seemed to suggest that Socialism might be destroyed not by its enemies — the US, the exiles, the opposition — but by the “revolutionaries” themselves. Indeed, the worst problems in the Cuban system have to do with wounds in subjects created by the revolution itself. A one-

party regime, whatever capacity for consensus it may have, is necessarily based on political exclusion. In spite of visible generational renovation, the island’s nomenklatura [elite] is still basically male, heterosexual, white and atheist, representative of a hegemonic minority in the country. The opposition and the exiles, two or three million of them, have no rights of any kind, while people who are, for example, black, female, homosexual or religious, form an underclass. Any Cuban who has ever doubted the goodness of Fidel and his brother as leaders, or the

Why should Cubans feel guilty for not sympathizing with their leader and ruling party? justice of their regime, or questioned the desirability of Marxism-Leninism as a state ideology or the efficiency of a centralized economy, is someone who can perhaps understand how the opposition feels. Not only this: any Cuban who has even understood or felt close to the arguments of the opposition is likely, either to have felt guilty of the sin of thinking reactionary thoughts, or else to have

Letters to the Editor Letters submitted to this section should not exceed 30 typed lines. It is imperative that each one is signed and is complete with an address, telephone number and DNI or passport number of the author. EL PAÍS reserves the right to publish such pieces, either in shortened version or as an extract when it is considered opportune. Unless otherwise stated, original letters will not be returned, nor will information be made available about them by mail or by phone. Email: [email protected]

EL ROTO

“I work in radio as a social disorientator.”

been punished by the regime. These wounds, the wounds of those who have doubted, are not easily healed, since their context is not religious, where expiation of guilt is possible, but grossly political. Why should the citizen feel guilty for not sympathizing with the leader and the party who govern the country? The nomenklatura are not unaware of these problems of healing, and, for at least a decade, some of its propagandists have been trying to put across a sort of remake version of Cuban Socialism, in which the Revolution — anti-bourgeois, atheist, macho, homophobic, nationalist — is pictured as having been somehow admissive of frivolity, pragmatism, religion, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism. A politically correct version — which, however, goes unacknowledged in the Stalinist official media. In view of the “continuity” of Socialism proclaimed by the official press, we can hardly be surprised at the email protest by thousands of intellectuals, even within the island, against the recent televised apology of the doings of the bureaucrat Luis Pavón Tamayo, who from 1971 to 1976 imposed an iron Stalinist rule on the cultural life of the country. If Cuban Socialism has left Stalinism behind it, then why has the regime never officially criticized Tamayo’s Congress of Education and Culture in 1971, which consummated the sovietization of revolutionary ideology? One of the main challenges facing the Cuban elite, if they manage to hold on to reins of power in a transition to democracy, will be to adjust their ideology to the new state capitalism and the new social diversity. Such adjustment will be a delicate matter, and may open rifts within the Western left and, much worse, within the less pragmatic sectors of the revolutionary left in Cuba itself — which, without wishing to, may initiate the democratization of Cuba. Rafael Rojas is a Cuban historian, exiled in Mexico.

NEWS / 3

EL PAÍS, Thursday, January 25, 2007

Civil Guard officers may face disciplinary action after mass protest

Sizing deal gets dressing down Medical and textile groups feel unifying criteria should become law machines.” The mediMadrid cal association said Medical associations that despite the good and textile makers yesterintentions, eating disday applauded the anorders do not depend nounced deal between only on the size pants the government and the a woman wears, but alfashion industry to unify so on the examples set clothing sizes, although by store-window manmany deemed it insuffinequins. cient. An anorexia and Under the voluntary bulimia support agreement, manufacturgroup, Adaner, echers will use unified criteoed this sentiment, ria to label their garcalling for a binding ments, avoiding the curlaw. rent situation whereby “You either legisthe same woman can late on things or you wear a size 36, 38, 40 or have nothing more even 42, depending on than a statement of the brand. good intentions, beStores also pledge to cause experience has remove mannequins unshown us that deals der a size 38, while the are not kept,” said Cargovernment will undermen González, spokeswrite a study to deterwoman for Adaner. mine the real measureStill, González said ments of the average she hopes the deal Spanish woman. Under means that the industhe deal, a size 46 will no try now has a greater longer be displayed in awareness of the probthe “Special Sizes” seclem. tion of stores. Meanwhile, the texThe Spanish Society tile association Acoof Endocrinology and tex, which has been reNutrition, SEEN, said questing a unified sizthat the agreement will ing criteria for years, go some way toward resaid the new deal lieving the “psychologishould be extended to cal pressure” felt by A model in last year’s Pasarela Cibeles. / BERNARDO PÉREZ all members of the Euwomen due to unrealisropean Union. tic examples set by the fashion ago and promptly forgotten. In Catalonia, the regional world. The association recommended a government applauded the govBut SEEN recalled how a binding garment industry regula- ernment’s move and said that similar self-regulatory agree- tion “similar to those used for the region was trying to close a ment was reached three years other products such as washing similar, local agreement.

Measurements of accused rapist’s penis to be used as evidence in court

STAFF REPORTER

Madrid The head of Spain’s police forces, Joan Mesquida, has ordered an internal inquiry to decide whether 3,000 Civil Guards should face disciplinary action for participating in a protest in Madrid. The demonstration last weekend was considered historic by organizers, marking the first time that uniformed Civil Guard officers had protested in public in support of better working conditions. Under the Civil Guard’s regulations, officers are denied the right to assemble, form unions or protest because of the military nature of the force. However, those restrictions are the principal source of gripes among officers, who are demanding that they receive equal treatment to the civilian National Police. Saturday’s protest in Madrid’s Plaza Mayor was organized by the AUGC, an association of Civil Guard officers, and supported by the CC OO labor union. Though on Monday Interior Minister José Antonio Alonso had said he did not believe the protest warranted disciplinary action, he told senior commanders Tuesday to respond to any sign of “indiscipline” in the ranks. Officials are concerned that if the rules are allowed to be bent for the Civil Guard, members of the armed forces could follow suit. The government recently presented a bill that would seek to improve the working conditions of Civil Guard officers, bringing them close to those of the National Police. STAFF REPORTER,

DAVID SEGARRA, Barcelona An accumulation of pesticides in women living in agricultural regions of southern Spain may be having an impact on the health and development of their unborn children, a new study shows. The findings by a team at the San Cecilio University Hospital in Granada are based on the analysis of 150 placentas from women who lived and gave birth in southern Spain, the area with the highest concentration of agricultural greenhouses in all of Europe. Pesticides used in farming techniques are known to enter workers’ bodies as well as those of people who consume the end produce — although before the study, the effects on health were unclear. The Granada team found that each placenta studied contained traces of at least eight different pesticides. The most common was a compound known as DDE, which results from ingestion of DDT, a pesticide that has been banned for decades in Spain and Europe. It was found in 96 percent of the samples. Other pesticides, such as Endosulfan Diol and Lidane, were found in more than 70 percent of the samples. According to findings published in the British journal Placenta last year, the Granada researchers have linked the higher concentrations of different pesticides in mothers to lower birth weights, and believe they may also be connected with more severe problems. “Mothers whose placentas experienced greater biological activity due to the combined effects of

The scourge of the crop field New study reveals how chemicals banned in many EU countries but permitted in Spain are causing a range of disorders in unborn children

S. H., Madrid A court in Jaén has authorized the admission of the measurements of a man’s penis in court as evidence in an attempt to prove his innocence against charges of rape. The public prosecutor in the case claims that the girl in question refused Ojiffar A.’s sexual advances, and that he raped her. The man’s lawyer, Amando Moreno, argues that the sex was consensual, and plans to use the dimensions to prove that a tear in her vagina and consequent bleeding was due to the man being “well endowed” rather than his having raped her. The necessary tests will be carried out by a forensic scientist from the Institute of Legal Medicine. Ojiffar A., a 37-year-old Nigerian, is accused of raping three women between 1998 and 2002. According to the public prosecutor, the first assault is said to have taken place on October 8, 1998, when the man is alleged to have raped the aforementioned girl, who at the time was a minor and one of his roommates. He then supposedly sexually assaulted his girlfriend’s sister in February 1999, after bumping into her in the entrance to his building. He is accused of having assaulted another girl he met in the entrance three years later. The man’s trial is due to begin on March 7. If found guilty, the public prosecutor is requesting a sentence of 30 years in jail and the payment of ¤20,000 in compensation.

The Lancet showed that chemical exposure can cause brain damage during fetal development, which can manifest itself in childhood as mental retardation as well as other neurological disorders. Even more widely cited problems are memory difficulties, a general lack of coordination, slower response times and attention deficit. The evidence is therefore mounting in favor of increasing restrictions on the use of the most dangerous pesticides, if not banning them altogether. “The proof that Endosulfan was present in the placentas is

The team found that each placenta studied contained traces of eight different pesticides

Research has linked different pesticides — used in southern Spain, and detected in placentas — to lower birth weights.

contaminating pesticides — the socalled cocktail effect — had a greater risk of giving birth to boys with malformations of the testi-

cles and penis,” Nicolás Olea, the researcher who led the study, says. Other research has also suggested that there may be serious

health consequences for unborn babies due to their mother’s exposure to pesticides. A report published recently in medical journal

very interesting,” Olea says. “In recent years many European countries have started to ban the use of the pesticide because of its toxicity and the way it accumulates in people’s bodies. Unfortunately, in Spain the process of phasing out its use has been stalled.” The consequences may not just affect unborn children. Another study recently published by the Granada team indicates that the pesticides can change the hormonal balance in young men. “We’re asking: what is the effect of multiple chemical compounds on their bodies? We will only know in time,” Olea says.

4 / FEATURES

EL PAÍS, Thursday, January 25, 2007

REAL ESTATE CORRUPTION Spain’s major political parties are moving into electoral mode ahead of local and regional polls with many officials and municipal leaders either in jail or under investigation in connection with corruption scandals and dodgy real estate deals. Andreu Manresa, Juan Manuel Pardellas, Ezequiel Moltó, María Fabra and Jaime Treceño report on a tainted campaign.

The brick hits the ballot box Real estate corruption is set to play a major role in how Spaniards vote in May’s regional polls low impunity to spread,” he says.

s May’s local and regional elections loom all over Spain, a rash of recent real estate corruption scandals is set to play its part in the results from the ballot box. As information about influence peddling, backhanders from developers to public officials and illegal rezoning of land to feed Spain’s construction boom filters through to voters through investigations — both in the courts and the media — mayors and councilors in many regions are becoming edgy about their prospects for reelection.

A

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Not far from Telde, in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Mayor Miguel Zerolo announced he would run again only days after High Court Judge Baltasar Garzón included his name on a list of people being investigated in a spin-off of one of the biggest financial scams to hit Spain in recent years, the Fórum Filatélico case. Zerolo, is a member of Coalición Canaria (CC), the conservative nationalist party that rules the regional government. The local CC committee in Santa Cruz has backed his candidacy. In a separate case, meanwhile, the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office has filed a lawsuit against Zerolo and 10 other officials for embezzlement of public funds in a real estate operation near the beach of Las Teresitas. “We’re expecting a really tough campaign,” a city council official admits, “especially on the part of the Socialists, whose candidate is virtually unknown and will have to go to great lengths to make it to newspaper headlines, presenting herself as someone swooping in from Madrid to lead a kind of clean-up operation.” “Let the people draw their own conclusions about what’s happening,” says Hernández Spínola. “The pre-campaign has been going on for five months, and what’s happened in the past few days hasn’t made us change our message one bit,” says Ángel Llanos, the PP’s mayoral candidate in Santa Cruz. The Popular Party has governing agreements with Coalición Canaria in the island of Tenerife and the Santa Cruz, La Laguna, Los Realejos, Arona and Güímar city councils.

Andratx The popular coastal resort of Andratx, in Majorca, is bracing itself for one of the toughest campaigns in years. Only six weeks after the publication of the electoral lists in the fall of last year, police arrested Eugenio Hidalgo, the Popular Party (PP) mayor. Hidalgo had been hoisted to the top of municipal politics thanks to the support of regional premier and former environment minister in José María Aznar’s government, Jaume Matas, and the head of the Balearic interior affairs department, José María Rodríguez. Neither of them considered that Hidalgo’s past, dotted with lawsuits against him, would be a hindrance to his management of the town hall and did not hesitate to integrate him and his independent ALA party into the PP during the last municipal race. The former Civil Guard, however, is now being investigated by a Majorca court for corruption, and can claim to be the first Balearic politician to have gone to prison in the past 30 years, having spent two weeks in custody after his arrest. His case has not just shaken Andratx, but the region’s entire political landscape. Among other things, the news of his arrest took all the shine off the preparations for the presentation of the new regional autonomy statute, one of Matas’ pet projects. Allegations of corruption, linked mostly to real estate development and illegal land rezoning deals, have been part of the Balearic political landscape since the 1990s — but this is the first time that they have had a real impact on an electoral race in the PPcontrolled region. Over the past four weeks the islands’ leading parties have reshuffled their municipal lists. In Andratx, the Socialists have presented Xisco Femenies, a local policeman as their new candidate for the upcoming elections. The nationalists of Unió Mallorquina are promoting Isabel Alemany, whose father, a real estate developer, is involved in a legal battle against Hidalgo. It is still uncertain, however, who the Popular Party will select to replace the former mayor and whether the party will be

Pilar de la Horadada

The former mayor of Andratx, Eugenio Hidalgo, is led into court by Civil Guard officers (top). Below left, Miguel Zerolo, mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and Pedro Antonio Torrejón, mayor of Ciempozuelos, on the right. / REUTERS / EFE

able to repeat, despite the scandal, the overwhelming majority it obtained in the 2004 elections at the regional level.

Telde In the Canary Islands, meanwhile, the PP is facing a whole other set of problems linked, yet again, to real estate corruption and land rezoning in a tourist area. Francisco Valido, who was elected mayor of Telde, in Gran Canaria, with the backing of the PP regional premier José Manuel Soria, resigned last winter along with seven of his councilors, also

of the Popular Party, when they started being investigated for an influence-peddling scandal that came to be known as the Faycán case. Despite this, the PP is certain it will win the poll with its new candidate and chides the nationalists of Nueva Canarias, Telde’s main opposition, for exploiting corruption for electoral gain. “Our work will only focus on cleaning up the democratic life and fighting corruption,” says Francisco Hernández Spínola, head of the Socialists electoral campaign in the Canaries. “We want the truth to shine, the inter-

ests of the public and the law must prevail.” Román Rodríguez, head of Nueva Canarias and former regional premier says he feels “hurt by the damage inflicted on our city in just three years by those PP and Ciuca [Citizens for Change, also involved in the scandal] characters.” Rodríguez has announced a campaign based on “the defense of transparency,” and has backed what he calls “the persecution of whitecollar crimes.” “It’s good to fight against corruption. If there’s a crime, we must condemn it. We can’t al-

In this town in Alicante, the PP joined ranks with two Socialist turncoats and an independent councilor to take control of the town council just six months before the elections. The Socialists, who have won five times in a row, linked the censure motion approved last December to the town hall’s rejection of an urban development project that foresees the construction of 5,200 housing units over a 2.6-millionsquare-meter expanse of undeveloped, rural land. The PP rejects accusations that the move was motivated by real estate interests. But days before presenting its censure motion, the PP had demanded an extraordinary session be held to push through the project. The session took place two days after the PP took over power. Growing pressure from the party’s provincial headquarters, however, led the new mayor to finally drop the project at least until the campaign is over.

FEATURES / 5

EL PAÍS, Thursday, January 25, 2007

REAL ESTATE CORRUPTION Corruption and real estate development will be at the heart of the race in this southern Alicante district where the former mayor Ignacio Ramos will head the Socialist ticket once again. Ramos is certain “the elections will show where everybody belongs... It’s the people, rather than turncoats who’re defending their own personal real estate interests, who must decide,” Ramos says. The PP, meanwhile, hopes that charges of irregular party financing pressed by one of the turncoat councilors against Ramos will mar the mayor’s image in the run-up to the elections. The suit was filed by Josefa Meroño only days after the Socialists rejected the urban development project and one week before she decided to endorse the PP’s censure motion. This week a multi-party committee against political turncoating decided to ask the anti-corruption prosecutors to investigate whether there were any irregularities in the censure motion in Pilar de la Horadada. Both the Socialists and the PP voted in favor of this decision, although the Popular Party has not taken any measures against the councilors who are working with the two turncoats.

Castellón province In nearby Castellón, the Fabra case has wrought havoc in the PP’s electoral campaign. The head of the provincial government, Carlos Fabra, from the PP, is being investigated for corruption and fraud. He has refused to step down, however, and is still in the race, forcing the PP to make great efforts to try to win key swing municipalities to ensure Fabra’s reelection. In only one of seven districts with over 20,000 people headed by the PP will the incumbent PP representative run in the upcoming elections. Fabra’s win over the Socialist candidate last time was decided by just 5,000 votes. The Popular Party’s campaign in Castellón has also been affected by the embezzlement charges pressed against Vila-real’s mayor, Manuel Vilanova and the real estate scandals that a few weeks ago forced the mayor of Burriana, of the PP, to resign. Vila-real and Burriana, moreover, are two of the most populous districts in Castellón.

Ciempozuelos The so-called Ciempozuelos case first hit newspaper headlines last October 17. The Socialist mayor of this growing town outside Madrid, Pedro Antonio Torrejón, had allegedly pocketed ¤40 million for favoring the interests of real estate company Esprode. Torrejón resigned as soon as the scandal was made public. On October 23, a court opened proceedings against him and Joaquín Tejeiro, the former mayor of Ciempozuelos and head of Esprode, for embezzlement, bribery and influence peddling. Investigations have revealed that Torrejón and Tejeiro had driven to nearby Andorra to make a bank deposit of almost one million euros. Despite judicial requests, neither of them has been able to demonstrate where that money came from. They were imprisoned in November but were soon after released on ¤900,000 bail. With six councilors the Social-

Shady money, dark deals and politics There is a host of reasons why Spain’s real estate sector is ridden with corruption INMACULADA DE LA VEGA

Madrid “Democracies don’t collapse because of terrorism but because of the corruption of civil servants, which breeds the feeling that anything goes,” said Supreme Court Judge José Antonio Martín Pallín. In this case, the magistrate was referring to a very specific kind of corruption — that linked to real estate development, currently the scourge of Spain’s local and regional politics. The growing number of fraud, embezzlement and illegal land rezoning cases linked to real estate development across the country over the past year has triggered growing demands for a comprehensive anti-corruption policy. The dean of Madrid’s Architect’s Association, for instance, has suggested the government should introduce a moratorium on land rezoning and issue securities to repurchase land that has been rezoned in the past five years. The idea, he says, is to start regulating the market while opening up the possibility of building more subsidized housing units. In Valencia, the regional government plans to adopt a new measure by which the capital gains accrued from land rezoning operations would be divvied up between the different owners of a piece of land over the past 25 years. This would prevent the purchase of protected land about to be rezoned at very low prices by people with inside information who could then sell it on for a much higher price. These kinds of last-minute measures in the run-up to the spring elections reflect politicians’ growing awareness of the need to put a check on corruption in the sector. Ignacio Navas, from the Housing Observatory, says there are three main fronts in the campaign against corruption. One is related to the limited financing resources of local governments, which lead them to boost their budgets through real estate deals, the second would tackle entrenched political party interests, and the third focuses on the lack of transparency and democratic participation in matters of urban development. The Ombudsman agrees. Corruption thrives at a local level, mostly through irregular land rezoning deals which are not included in initial urban development plans. Regional governments, however, are also affected. Some of them, like the Madrid region’s, lack an adequate strategy to regulate the use of the land. Such a strategy, propped up by urban development inspection ists still head the municipal government. The Popular Party, meanwhile, has four councilors and a PP breakaway group four more. The United Left (IU) has three councilors. Interim mayor Susana León, head of the local Socialist Party branch says it will be hard for the party to overcome this blow. “The Socialist Party is broken, but it has a history of more than 100 years and we will overcome this,” she says, explaining

The growing level of real estate fraud has triggered demands for a new anti-corruption policy. / JULIÁN ROJAS

At the Housing Ministry officials talk about real estate speculation as if it were cholesterol: according to them there is “good” and “bad” speculation. The good type is based on calculated business risk-taking, while the bad one is based on riskless property purchase and resale operations motivated by the benefits drawn from capital gains rather from creating any added value. According to university professor

Good and bad speculation Jesús Sánchez-Lambás, from Transparency International, Spain’s urban planning system is unique in Europe. In Spain, when a town council rezones a protected area of land, 90 percent of the capital gains accrued from the operation don’t go to the City Hall but to the

mechanisms, would allow regional authorities to put limits on the growth of different districts. Alejandra Gómez, who works for Andalusia’s Criminology Institute, believes the lack of institutional control mechanisms are at the heart of the problem. “It’s not that there are less corrupt people in other countries, it’s just that the chances to become corrupt are less,” she says. “Control mechanisms in Spain through the courts, police and administration are too lax.” Indeed, authorities often fear that tackling real estate corruption might affect the whole economic structure of certain areas that the people of Ciempozuelos are disappointed and confused. “At the beginning there was incredulity, confusion, sadness, disappointment... Now we don’t know how people will respond in the ballot box.” The mayor says people were generally happy with the changes introduced by the Socialists in the way things were run in Ciempozuelos, but she knows the party will suffer from the Torrejón effect. The Socialists seem as dis-

owner, who gains without investing. The 1956 Land Law introduced control mechanisms for land prices, artificially inflating the latter as a function of its possible use for urban development purposes in the future. This mechanism benefits the owner of the land,

of the country. That is what happened with the so-called Operation White Whale, which in 2005 uncovered a vast network of corruption that was tightly linked to the tourist industry along the Costa del Sol.

Blown out of proportion? “We had warned that there was a risk that not fully legal business groups and corrupt politicians could take over decision-making mechanisms in several City Halls, and that’s what happened,” Gómez says. The Association of Real Estate Developers and Construcconcerted as the people of Ciempozuelos and have not yet nominated a new candidate to run in the upcoming May 27 election. The PP candidate and party spokesperson María Ángeles Herrera says there is “outrage.” This time, she says, “people will have to vote with their consciences. I think our options our good.” The independent candidate Javier de Oro hopes the scandal will benefit his Independent Party. Although in the past he has

who gains without making any investment. His gains are financed either by the developer or the authorities who are expropriating the land. A new bill currently under debate in Congress plans to eliminate this mechanism and replace it with one through which the landowner would receive compensation on the basis of the amount a similar plot of land would cost elsewhere prior to its rezoning.

tors, meanwhile, argues that the issue has been blown out of proportion. Corruption cases, it says, affect some 20,000 of the 600,000 new housing units that are built each year — a proportion the organization describes as “of little overall significance.” Legal delays are another obstacle impeding the campaign against corruption. Legal experts say that corruption proceedings can stretch over 12 to 15 years and that the process often expires before that time. The tendency to legalize constructions built under illegal circumstances only fuels this kind of behavior, says Gómez. backed the Socialists in government, this time round, he says, he will not enter any coalitions. The leftist IU candidate, Gemma Fornell, is also going to great lengths to stress her party’s independence within the town council. “We’ve been calling for transparency from the start of this term. We stood alone in our fight and now the PP has joined us,” she complains. She thinks it is impossible to predict the outcome of the upcoming elections.

6 / SPORTS

EL PAÍS, Thursday, January 25, 2007

Nadal blasted out of Australian Open by hot Chilean González

Counting the days to the Tour Banned from the 2006 race, cyclist Contador signs for Discovery CARLOS ARRIBAS, Madrid Alberto Contador, known as the “21st century Perico Delgado” for his great strength in mountains and time trials, has signed a two-year contract for top US team Discovery Channel. At the age of 24, the cyclist born in Madrid — another similarity with 1988 Tour de France winner Delgado — is considered a force of nature, the most promising disciple of embattled cycling guru Manolo Saiz. The transfer to the team which helped Lance Armstrong win his seventh and final Tour is part of the dismantling of Saiz’s Liberty-Astana team. The Spanish veteran team manager is immersed in the judicial process surrounding Operation Puerto, the anti-doping investigation which erupted in Madrid last May. Dozens of top cyclists, allegedly clients of now-notorious sports medic Eufemiano Fuentes were implicated, and Saiz has since had his license removed. So Saiz has put his whole team up for sale as he has no revenues to pay his cyclists. Belgian former cyclist and current Discovery boss, Johann Bruyneel, has been waiting for Contador to end his contract with Astana since Operation Puerto started to make waves in May. Earlier this month, the negotiations over signing Contador were completed. Contador’s name, as well as those of his teammates at Saiz’s team, was included in a list of riders who had allegedly been involved in doping practices, preventing the cyclist from competing in last year’s Tour after a promising performance in 2005. However, Fuentes publicly announced that Contador was not among his “clients,” most of whom had blood transfusions. These words released the cyclist from the shadow of suspicion, and he was able to return to racing.

Madrid Rafael Nadal disappointed fans hoping for a breakthrough Grand Slam event win away from the clay courts of Paris, losing in straight sets to Chile’s Fernando González in the Australian Open quarterfinals on Wednesday. Nadal, the world number two, admitted to having been outplayed by the 10thseeded González, but also blamed a leg injury for the 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 defeat. “He was playing at a very good level. It wasn’t good for me... I couldn’t play at 100 percent,” the 20-year-old Spaniard said in Melbourne after the match. He said he had picked up the injury during his thrilling five-set victory over Scottish teenager Andy Murray on Monday night. Nadal’s frustration at not being able to control the match at any point against an in-form opponent was such that he was uncharacteristically warned for bad language by the umpire. “I have pain not just in one place, I have it in my famous ass,” he added, pointing to his backside. J. B.,

Rafa kept running “I saw Rafa call the trainer, but at no point did I see him not run for a ball,” said González, who beat Lleyton Hewitt and fifth seed James Blake in the previous two rounds. “I wanted to finish the points as quickly as possible. If I’d known that his leg was hurting, maybe I would have played for longer rallies,” the Chilean remarked. González served well, and hit an impressive 41 winners in yesterday’s win. “Before I used to hit and hit... I would win a point and lose a point, but now I have other strategies.” González now plays Germany’s Tommy Haas — the winner of that semifinal will play either Andy Roddick or Roger Federer in the final. Nadal, meanwhile, says his aim is to be fit to play for Spain against Switzerland in the Davis Cup next month.

Probe launched into Portugal’s “Golden whistle” referees scandal A. E., Madrid The Portuguese Soccer Federation (FPF) announced on Wednesday that it has opened disciplinary proceedings against 11 referees as part of an ongoing match-fixing scandal in the lower divisions of Portuguese soccer. The referees, all of whom are from the second division, are accused of taking bribes in exchange for favoring particular clubs during the 2003-2004 season. The case first came to light in 2004, when the police received an anonymous letter alleging that the Gondomar club had been trying to bribe referees and other officials in order to fix matches. Dubbed the “Golden Whistle” scandal by the media, the affair has led to an in-depth probe into corruption in Portuguese soccer.

Andorra-England game to be played in higher-capacity Espanyol stadium Contador chose Discovery “because it builds the season round the Tour.” / AP

But he had to stop doing so after he suffered an epileptic fit on his bicycle when, after a stage in the Vuelta a Burgos, he was returning to the hotel where he was staying. That happened in August and since then he hasn’t been able to compete again. He hasn’t stopped training, however, and is now ready to join the American team.

Biking with Basso With Lance Armstrong now having taken a back seat as a shareholder in the team, Dis-

covery is now headed by Italian cyclist Ivan Basso — whose name was also linked to Operation Puerto, preventing him from taking part in the 2006 Tour, for which he was tipped as a possible winner. How Contador’s career will play out at Discovery is still uncertain. He has said he chose the team “because it builds the season around the Tour.” For now, Contador must help Basso up the steepest climbs, hoping his time to reach for the stars will follow later.

STAFF REPORTER, Madrid The Euro 2008 soccer qualifier on March 28 between England and Andorra will be held in Spain rather than in the tiny Pyrenean principality because of space concerns, UEFA’s executive committee agreed Wednesday. UEFA upheld requests from both Andorra and England for the match to be held at Barcelona’s Montjuïc stadium, the home of the club Espanyol. Andorra’s national stadium has space for just 1,800 fans — less than the number of England followers who are expected to try to attend the match. In 2004, England had played Liechtenstein in similar circumstances, raising a number of security issues as many fans traveled without tickets.

Useful information WEATHER SPAIN TODAY

J. L. RON

Sunny Changeable Cloudy

Pontevedra

Santander Bilbao San Sebastián

Oviedo

A Coruña

Lugo

Vitoria

León

Ourense

Showers Rain

Fog

Valladolid

Zamora

Stormy Oporto

Guadalajara Cuenca

Cáceres

Toledo

Castellón Valencia

Rough Seas

Palma de Mallorca

Albacete Badajoz

Ciudad Real Alicante

Swell

Córdoba

Slight swell Huelva

Jaén

Murcia

Sevilla Granada Almería

Cádiz S. C. Tenerife Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Teruel

Madrid

Lisboa

Barcelona

Zaragoza

Tarragona

Frosty

Heavy swell

Lleida

Soria

Ávila

Snow

Girona

Huesca

Segovia

Salamanca

Windy

Pamplona Logroño

Palencia Burgos

Toulouse

Málaga Ceuta

Melilla

Let it snow Significant snowstorms in the northern third of the peninsula, possibly moving south to the central region. Showers expected in the Balearics, the Canaries and many areas of the peninsula. Snow expected at 200m to 600m altitude. Temperatures going down slightly. Highs: Madrid 6ºC, Barcelona 10ºC, Málaga 13ºC, Palma de Majorca 11ºC, Lisbon 9ºC.

All emergencies............. 112 Ambulance ....................061 Fire Brigade .................080 Municipal police ............092 National police .............091 Civil Guard ....................062 Catalan police ..............088 Traffic ..............900 123 505 Consumer information........900 775 757 Forest fires.......900 850 500 Domestic abuse............... 900 100 009 Coast Guard ....900 202 202 Immigration information.......900 150 000 Power supplies ..........900 248 248 Directory ..................11818 International directory inq ..............11825 TOURIST POLICE Madrid .............91 548 85 37 Barcelona ........93 290 33 27 Gran Canaria 928 30 46 64 AIRPORTS AENA (flights, customer services).............. 902 404 704

Barcelona .......93 298 38 38 Madrid .............902 35 35 70 Valencia ..........96 159 85 00 Málaga ............95 204 88 04 Palma ..............97 178 90 99 TRAINS RENFE ............902 240 202 International ....902 243 402 EMBASSIES Australia...........91 353 66 00 Canada ............91 423 32 50 Ireland .............91 436 40 93 New Zealand ..91 523 02 26 UK. ...................91 700 82 00 US ....................91 587 22 00 CITY WEBSITES www.munimadrid.es www.bcn.es www.sevilla.org PORTUGAL All emergencies............ 112 Breakdowns....... 219425095 MOROCCO Police..............................190 Fire Brigade....................150

BUSINESS / 7

EL PAÍS, Thursday, January 25, 2007

Banco Sabadell agrees to buy Miami bank

Watchdog sees signs of insider trading in Rofisa

Endesa raises profit estimates ahead of takeover offer period

A. S., Madrid Banco Sabadell has made a foray into the United States with the purchase of Transatlantic Bank of Miami for $175 million (¤135 million), the medium-sized Spanish lender said Wednesday. Banco Sabadell said the acquisition of Transatlantic Bank would provide it with an excellent operational platform and a solid commercial branch network. “The acquisition of Transatlantic Bank is Banco Sabadell’s first step in implementing our retail banking know-how in a market with an attractive potential, which offers favorable conditions for growth and value creation,” the bank’s chairman, José Oliu, said in a statement. The deal, which will be paid for in cash, is subject to approval from the relevant authorities. Transatlantic Bank was founded in Miami in 1984, with its operations based in Dade County. The bank has $521 million in deposits and a loan portfolio of $435 million, mostly in mortgages and credits to small- and medium-sized companies and medium-to-high income individuals. The bank has 133 employees and a network of seven branches located in the Miami metropolitan area. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Spain’s second largest bank, earlier this month completed the purchase of State National Bancshares for about $483.7 million (¤366 million). The acquisition of State National formed part of an operation that also included the purchase of rival Texan bank, Texas Regional Bancshares for $2.164 billion (¤1.64 billion). BBVA also acquired Texas-based Laredo National in 2005. Last year, Banco Santander, Spain’s largest bank, acquired a 24.9-percent stake in Philadelphia-based Sovereign Bancorpfor $2.9 billion (¤2.26 billion). Santander also has an option to fully acquire the US bank.

E.ON and Gas Natural can submit enhanced bids early February A. S., Madrid Endesa on Wednesday raised its earnings forecast in what was a clear invitation to rival bidders for Spain’s largest electricity company to raise their offers. In a presentation to analysts under the slogan “Endesa is worth more,” the power company lifted its estimate for net profit for last year to ¤2.95 billion, ¤50 million more than it forecast in July. It also raised its net earnings projection for 2009 to ¤3.075 billion from ¤3 billion previously. CEO Rafael Miranda said Endesa had decided to make the most recent earnings figures available to shareholders before they decide which way they want to go in the takeover offers. But he declined to put a figure on how much be believed Endesa is worth. Germany’s E.ON lodged an all-cash offer for Endesa in February of last year worth ¤27.5 per share, but it subsequently committed itself to raising this

The European Commission on Wednesday said it had referred the Spanish government to the European Court of Justice for boosting the powers of the country’s energy regulator to allow it to veto E.ON’s bid for Endesa. The government had championed Gas Natural’s offer for the electricity company with a view to creating a national power giant able to compete with the rest of the Europe. Shortly after E.ON tabled its surprise offer

New highs RAFAEL VIDAL

The Spanish blue-chip Ibex 35 recorded new highs for the year yesterday as it jumped on the bandwagon of a rally in the European bourses. The benchmark index ended Wednesday’s session up 1.20 percent at 14,540.70 points after hitting a record intraday high of 14,560.20 points. The Ibex Medium Caps gained 1.04 percent and the Ibex Small Caps 0.80 percent. The European stock markets began the session with the same canniness of the past few days, with this translating into moderate gains which built up bit by bit in the absence of selling pressure. Technical analysis had pointed to the possibility of a rebound in the Ibex 35, which had remained above support levels of late despite the uncertainty surrounding the market. In one fell swoop, the blue-chip index yesterday hit resistance at 14,550 points. The strength of buying interest will determine whether it can break through this level or fall back to the support zone around 14,300 points. Turnover in the continuous market amounted to ¤6.605 billion. The circumstances surrounding yesterday’s developments in the market in no way differed from those in place in previous sessions. But recent losses had pushed stock prices down to more attractive prices, while upward revisions of analysts’ forecasts ended up convincing investors of the possibility of a limited rally.

IBEX 35

through a sealed-envelope tender system. The chairman of the National Securities Commission, Manuel Conthe, said yesterday the regulator expected to set the date for the tender for February 2. The watchdog was due to meet today to decide on the acceptance period for the offers.

Vote attendance bonus

Endesa CEO Rafael Miranda.

to at least ¤34.5. Gas Natural’s cash-and-share offer was worth ¤21.3 per share at the time it was launched in September 2005. Endesa’s share price closed up 0.52 percent yesterday at ¤38.58. The rival bidders have the opportunity to enhance their offers

Both offers are subject to shareholders removing a by-law that restricts individual investor voting rights in Endesa to 10 percent of its share capital. The move requires the backing of shareholders representing a minimum of 50 percent of Endesa’s capital. Miranda said the shareholder meeting to vote on striking down the by-law was likely to take place during the acceptance period for the offer. He said Endesa may pay shareholders an attendance bonus to ensure a large turnout at the meeting.

EC locks legal horns with Spain in February of last year, the government rushed through a decree empowering the National Energy Commission (CNE) to examine the German utility’s bid. In a statement posted on its website yesterday, the Commission said the additional powers granted to the CNE “constitute unjustified

restrictions on the free movement of capital and the right of establishment” in violation of EC Treaty rules. Brussels rejected arguments by the government that the decree was needed to safeguard minimum supplies of essential energy products and services as “unsatisfactory.” Brussels approved

E.ON’s bid without conditions. The CNE, however, imposed 19 provisos on the deal, which obliged E.ON to sell off about one third of Endesa’s generation assets in Spain. The Industry Ministry pared most of these conditions down following a complaint by the Commission they were illegal. Brussels insisted the scaled-down provisos were still illegal, but the government has refused to remove them, leaving it open to further legal action.

Close: 14,540.70 (+172.10; +1.20%)

Nominal Equity

Latest price

Former

Daily variation Euros %

3.00 1.00 0.25 0.50 1.00 0.10 0.75 0.10 0.50 0.79 1.50 0.49 0.20 0.10 1.50 1.20 0.10 1.00 1.00 0.50 1.00 3.00 0.78 0.15 0.20 1.50 2.00 2.00 1.00 1.00 0.50 2.00 0.50 1.00 3.00

21.96 155.00 21.72 42.58 27.56 40.43 17.42 14.62 36.00 19.00 61.20 19.35 12.65 3.81 17.30 38.58 35.64 80.80 74.25 21.67 30.15 32.64 3.04 41.07 18.80 123.95 17.30 30.10 25.19 46.51 14.49 27.62 20.82 16.71 38.47

21.87 149.00 20.85 42.07 27.03 40.70 17.17 14.54 35.86 18.68 60.25 19.09 12.51 3.79 16.72 38.38 35.60 79.30 74.45 21.53 29.33 32.34 3.08 41.40 18.70 123.75 16.87 29.25 24.70 46.84 14.16 27.50 20.45 16.63 38.01

0.09 6.00 0.87 0.51 0.53 -0.27 0.25 0.08 0.14 0.32 0.95 0.26 0.14 0.02 0.58 0.20 0.04 1.50 -0.20 0.14 0.82 0.30 -0.04 -0.33 0.10 0.20 0.43 0.85 0.49 -0.33 0.33 0.12 0.37 0.08 0.46

Abertis Acciona Acerinox ACS-Dragados Aguas de Barcelona Altadis Antena 3 TV Banco Popular Banco Sabadell Banesto Bankinter BBVA Cintra Corpor. Mapfre Enagás Endesa Fadesa FCC Ferrovial Gamesa Gas Natural Iberdrola Iberia Inditex Indra Metrovacesa NH Hoteles REE Repsol YPF Sacyr Vallehermoso Santander Sogecable Telecinco Telefónica Unión Fenosa

0.41 4.03 4.17 1.21 1.96 -0.66 1.46 0.55 0.39 1.71 1.58 1.36 1.12 0.53 3.47 0.52 0.11 1.89 -0.27 0.65 2.80 0.93 -1.30 -0.80 0.53 0.16 2.55 2.91 1.98 -0.70 2.33 0.44 1.81 0.48 1.21

Trading in euros Yesterday Min. Max. 21.63 150.20 21.00 42.00 27.11 40.17 17.11 14.57 35.81 18.80 60.10 19.15 12.52 3.76 16.77 38.44 35.58 79.25 74.10 21.54 29.35 32.39 2.97 40.85 18.66 122.90 16.84 29.50 24.86 46.11 14.25 27.33 20.40 16.56 38.02

21.98 155.00 21.73 42.58 27.59 40.70 17.47 14.66 36.20 19.15 61.30 19.37 12.68 3.83 17.32 38.75 35.65 81.55 74.90 21.89 30.20 32.79 3.04 41.40 18.89 124.50 17.42 30.46 25.34 47.39 14.49 27.71 20.97 16.81 38.67

Trading volume (1,000) % Annual variation Yest. Accum. Previous Current 979.9 300.9 2,841.5 1,562.4 504.9 2,632.8 1,075.2 4,144.8 1,099.3 1,489.0 240.0 20,861.1 1,373.3 5,035.4 10,401.3 7,917.8 1,423.3 468.7 613.4 1,579.2 1,194.4 4,779.4 15,660.5 1,661.3 951.7 75.7 1,353.6 2,543.8 12,135.8 704.8 48,901.4 603.9 1,505.5 41,006.9 1,076.5

15,543.0 3,248.8 39,357.7 18,910.7 10,488.3 39,336.6 15,509.9 107,248.9 13,840.7 22,835.6 4,203.1 442,007.0 29,640.4 162,979.3 72,443.7 110,722.5 9,458.5 9,818.5 8,773.2 22,080.9 17,760.9 99,428.5 209,777.8 18,381.2 17,622.2 2,897.1 14,186.5 31,051.4 144,503.5 8,781.0 806,039.0 8,257.4 13,409.5 701,293.6 15,106.7

11.12 49.39 87.55 56.96 55.65 3.47 -11.42 33.30 53.02 32.70 27.16 20.95 36.49 22.58 11.52 68.51 26.26 61.17 26.41 68.69 26.75 43.44 20.52 48.13 12.72 150.49 13.28 24.20 6.20 118.45 26.82 -20.26 1.22 26.83 19.31

-2.40 9.85 -5.77 -0.30 -0.68 1.97 -2.35 6.48 6.16 13.37 2.68 6.09 -0.39 11.40 -1.82 7.68 1.39 4.66 0.41 3.93 0.53 -1.45 10.14 0.64 1.02 1.28 15.26 -7.36 -3.85 3.36 2.48 2.30 -3.52 3.66 2.59

The National Securities Commission (CNMV) believes there were signs of insider trading in Inmocaral’s takeover offer for its property rival Riofisa, which was tabled Friday of last week, the chairman of the bourse regulator, Manuel Conthe, said Wednesday. After the market closed on Friday, Inmocaral unveiled an offer of ¤44.31 per share for Riofisa. In the hours prior to the bid announcement, Inmocaral’s share price shot up 11.7 percent prior, while Riofisa put on 5.11 percent. “I believe that there could effectively be signs [of insider trading], and unfortunately this is one more case,” Conthe told reporters. Conthe said the CNMV plans to announce next week measures to clamp down on insider trading in general.

Galp to invest close to ¤1 billion on refineries Galp Energia, Portugal’s largest oil company, said Wednesday it planned to invest ¤998 million to upgrade at its Sines and Oporto refineries. In a statement Wednesday to the Securities Commission (CMVM), Galp said upgrade will involve equipping the refineries to increase output of diesel by 2.5 million tons and decrease fuel oil production by 2011. The move is aimed at taking advantage of growing demand for diesel in the Iberian market, and the favorable price differential between diesel and fuel oil prices in international markets. This will have a positive impact on Galp’s refining margin of $3 per barrel. The upgrade will also allow the refineries to handle heavier crude oils available at lower international prices.

Enagás names Antonio chairman Enagás, the company that operates Spain’s gas distribution grid, said Wednesday its board had unanimously appointed Antonio Llardén as chairman, replacing Antonio González-Adalid, who stood down “in the company’s interests.” GonzálezAdalid has been a director of Enagás since 2004.

CONTINUOUS MARKET BIGGEST HIGHS Vueling Jazztel Mittal Steel Mecalux Inypsa Acerinox Acciona Abengoa Dinamia Nicolás Correa

% 5.98 5.17 4.68 4.60 4.36 4.17 4.03 3.89 3.57 3.50

Euros 2.25 0.03 1.56 1.71 0.31 0.87 6.00 1.12 0.93 0.22

% -4.73 -2.74 -2.59 -2.06 -1.76 -1.74 -1.74 -1.72 -1.39 -1.30

Euros -0.31 -1.05 -0.55 -0.07 -0.29 -0.30 -0.10 -0.01 -0.11 -0.04

BIGGEST LOWS Zeltia Befesa Montebalito Urbas GAM Industrias Besós Uralita Reno Medici Avanzit Iberia

FOREIGN CURRENCIES US dollar Japanese yen Sterling pound Australian dollar Swiss franc Norwegian kroner

Buy 1.2955 156.7600 0.6587 1.6582 1.6187 8.2342

Sell 1.2955 156.7555 0.6587 1.6578 1.6185 8.2342

Units per euro at 18:00

Source: Cinco Días

EL PAIS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2007

E-Mail: [email protected]

Miguel Yuste, 40. 28037 Madrid. 91 337 8200. Fax 91 327 0818. Legal deposit: M. 14951-1976 © Diario El País, SL. Madrid 2002. “All rights reserved. According to articles 8 and 32.1, second paragraph, of the Intellectual Property Law, it is expressly prohibited to reproduce, distribute or communicate in public, including making available, the entirety or segments of this publication for commercial ends, in any shape or form, without the authorization of Diario El País S.L.”

ENGLISH EDITION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Celebrities line up to face the lie detector Two rival programs on private television stations Tele 5 and Antena 3 are using polygraphs to test just how honest their guests are, but despite the shows’ popularity, police and judges insist the machine is of no value whatsoever R. G. GÓMEZ / I. GALLO, Madrid A small dose of science and a lot of entertainment. That is the formula behind two rival television programs that feature an old favorite, the lie detector. The polygraph is not new on Spanish screens. In the 1990s the private station Tele 5 popularized the machine invented in 1921 by John A. Larson, a medicine student at the University of California. The contraption measured changes in breathing patterns, blood pressure, heartbeat and the skin’s capacity for conducting electricity. Now, two evening programs on the private stations Tele 5 and Antena 3 are again using the polygraph to attract audiences. Last September, Antena 3 began airing En antena, a program that includes a segment called El polígrafo. The lie detector is operated by José Antonio Fernández de Landa, a man with 18 years’ experience and a resumé that includes jobs at the national police special operations unit GEO, the FBI, the US State Department and the American embassy in Spain. Since 1993 he has worked freelance, and television has become his forte. His polygraph test has been aired on programs in Italy, Romania and Lebanon. En antena is now watched by 1,777,000 people, representing an audience share of 23.3 percent. In view of this success, rival station Tele 5 came up with its own program, A tu lado, which also features a lie detector. This one is operated by Amável Sanches, a founding member of BEAR Forensics, which advertises itself as “a group of independent professionals specialized in the detec-

José Amedo, a former policeman involved in the dirty war against ETA, gets the polygraph treatment on Antena 3’s program En antena.

tion of deception.” Around 1,907,000 spectators, or 19.7 percent of the audience share at that time, follow this program. So just how trustworthy is the polygraph? Not at all, police sources assert. “We have never used it. The police only use the methods admitted by our legislation, such as DNA testing or fingerprinting. Polygraphs are not admitted because they do not constitute proof,” says a spokesperson at national police headquarters. Judge Jaime Tapia, of the Alava provincial court, agrees that the polygraph test has no legal value. “It’s pseudo-scientific evidence of no value,” he says. “It’s not in the law and cannot be

used to pass sentences. The reaction to the polygraph test depends on a lot of factors that go beyond lying or telling the truth — including the subjectivity of

Police say polygraphs are not admitted because they do not constitute proof the examiner.” But the psychologist and polygraph examiner Julio Bronchal defends its usefulness in some cases. “It is proof of the credibility of a testimony,” he says, citing

cases of fraud, rape or abuse where the lie detector was used. “When it’s your word against somebody else’s, the polygraph provides proof of credibility and could on occasion be a determining factor.” Bronchal is one of the very few Spaniards who belong to the European Polygraph Association, and he asserts that the lie detector is 98 to 99 percent reliable. “The real lie detector is the examiner,” he says, pointing out that the key lies in the questions asked. The fact that the polygraph is being used in show business, he says, does not detract from its usefulness. “A microphone can be used to tell a joke or to make a solemn speech,” he points out.

Reliable or not, the fact remains that a long list of Spanish celebrities have been willing to submit to the test on the air, from the former boxer Poli Díaz to the ex-police officer José Amedo, who was involved in the GAL, a secret death squad set up by the government in the 1980s to murder ETA terrorists. According to Fernández de Landa, “famous people’s lies generally have to do with their sexual relations, or whether a certain story was fabricated.” But the police remain adamant. “Using the polygraph as proof would be like using a fortune teller’s prediction to solve a homicide.”

Down with intelligence, up with the paperwork Artist Fernando Sánchez Castillo’s new show features historical objects from the Franco era FIETTA JARQUE, Madrid Fernando Sánchez Castillo asks a lot of questions. Too many, some think. This Madrileño, who was born in 1970, is a contemporary artist who delves into thorny issues such as dictatorship — especially that of Francisco Franco. He does so by working with statues, official monuments and other memorabilia from the Franco era, an endeavor that has absorbed him for a decade. Sánchez Castillo, one of the most admired Spanish artists abroad, last week opened a new show at León’s Musac museum. The title of the show, Abajo la inteligencia (Down with intelligence), refers to a famous phrase uttered by Nationalist General Millán Astray in 1936 against the writer and philosopher Miguel de Unamuno. His next words were: “Long live death! Intellectuals, you have been the downfall of Spain.”

Sánchez Castillo says that his exhibition tackles “the kind of censorship that is imposed by power but is later assimilated by artists and intellectuals through self-censorship. It’s Spaniards’ tradition of not traveling, not speaking another language. The echo of ‘Down with intelligence’ can still be heard nowadays.” The exhibition includes the mast and several other parts from the Azor, Franco’s recreational yacht. Getting his hands on these sorts of items is not always easy, he says. “Many institutions don’t have the courage to face these issues. When I’ve asked the Military Museum for a piece for a contemporary art show, they are very distrustful and submit all my requests to the joint chiefs of staff and to the Ministry. There’s so much paperwork, so many bureaucratic hurdles, so many excuses not to hand over these items that time goes by and nothing happens.”

Fernando Sánchez Castillo, in the foreground, with Francisco Artacho, a smelter who works with him. / ULY MARTÍN

Yet Sánchez Castillo insists his work is purely artistic and has nothing to do with propaganda. “I’m an artist, not a political agitator,” he says. At one point, he requested the death mask and hand cast of Fran-

co, which had been on display for years in the museum. But he was denied those, too. Sánchez Castillo believes this reflects a more general fear of unearthing the past in Spain. “It’s a desire to hide, to protect, to keep,

to not argue. We discuss the problems of earlier generations, but not our own.” Abajo la inteligencia. Until May 2 at Musac, Avda de los Reyes Leoneses 24, León. Tel: 987 09 00 00