Armour-clad warriors charge from behind a rocky outcrop and gallop across the steppe, swords aloft and banners flapping in the wind.

But young Charley's face-off with an armour-clad German sniper proved controversial.

Newly privatised Spanish firms scooped up Latin American banks, telephone companies and utilities, drawing sometimes-unfavourable comparisons to their armour-clad Conquistador ancestors 500 years earlier.