The state-run Water and Sewage Company, ENACAL, froze assets belonging to Spanish electricity provider Unión Fenosa as collateral for $1 million debt, Unión Fenosa said.

The “preventive embargo” began Monday with orders from a judge from the Third Civil Court of Managua.

The Spanish power giant has warned that any similar attempts to freeze company bank accounts would plunge the country back into another electricity crisis.

The government last August embargoed property belonging to U.S. oil company Esso Standard Oil in a tax payment dispute that later served as leverage in high-stakes round of business negotiations.

Unión Fenosa spokesman Jorge Katín, however, thinks that in this case ENACAL might be acting alone because the Sandinista government has already negotiated a deal to buy 16% of Unión Fenosa.

“I don't think the government would need to do this type of thing,” he told The Nica Times.