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I predicted that my cousin would open up land to private ownership.. I got called a running dog.. I wrote that the Cubans encouraged private you think you and got called a class traitor.. I predicted that they would develop production sharing agreements with oil companies got told I didnt understand peoples power.. and was an idiot..
When I mentioned that Cuba had interfered in the internal affairs of panama my sppelling was corrected and I was called a fool because google did not have an article on it... Funny dont you think I am told by experts in dogs defecating in Havana I am a liar.. Well the Guardian goes and tells the story of Dame Margot Fontyn and the Cuban interference.. Still I get every thing.. still the good old Guardian journalists must be running dogs, liars, idiots
ame Margot Fonteyn: the ballerina and the attempted coup in Panama
Confidential files reveal her role in Cuban-backed military plot
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Tweet this (7)
Owen Bowcott
The Guardian, Friday 28 May 2010
Article history
Dame Margot Fonteyn, whose husband launched a failed Panamanian coup attempt in 1959. Photograph: PA Wire
The extraordinary conspiratorial role played by Dame Margot Fonteyn in a Cuban-backed military coup aimed at overthrowing the government of Panama is revealed in confidential government files released today.
The British prima ballerina confessed her extensive involvement to the Foreign Office minister John Profumo shortly after fleeing the abortive revolution.
The extent of her complicity – and the government's reluctance to inform the US – is detailed in files from 1959 that have been sent to the National Archives in Kew, west London.
The "slap dash comedy", as Profumo described the episode, was brought to the attention of the British ambassador in Panama, Sir Ian Henderson, in the early hours of 21 April that year.
The Duke of Edinburgh, visiting the Central American state, had left the country two days earlier. Dame Margot, an internationally acclaimed performer famed for her partnership with the Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, was on holiday nearby but had failed to attend a reception in his honour.
"Police confirm information reaching me that Dame Margot Fonteyn ... was detained for questioning late last night at Panama City prison," Henderson cabled urgently to the Foreign Office.
His immediate concern was for the safety of such a "public figure". Henderson woke the Panamanian foreign minister and raced down to the prison. He was initially denied access.
The tone of outraged diplomatic protocol was gradually replaced by one of accumulating suspicions. Fonteyn, then 39 and at the height of her professional career, was married to a Panamanian, Dr Roberto Arias, who was the son of a former president and onetime ambassador to London.
Reports began to emerge that Arias had landed a band of armed rebels, some Cuban, from his yacht. Fishermen had spotted weapons being landed.
Henderson was allowed into the jail to see her that evening. His despatch to the Foreign Office explained how he had dealt with the "incarceration" of the prima ballerina of Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden.
"I found her physically well though naturally a little confused at first and with no complaints about her accommodation," he wrote. "She had been allotted the prison's 'presidential suite', reserved for political prisoners of high standing ... and the English-speaking 2nd Lieutenant detailed to look after her was careful to provide fresh flowers for her dressing table.
"My conversation with Dame Margot, part of which she tried to carry on in conspiratorial whispers – which I discouraged in front of the police – convinced me, if I needed convincing, that the Arias family are conspiring against the government and that she herself had at least on arrival here complied in their rebellious designs.
"She knew that her husband was gun-running, she knew that he was accompanied by rebels and at one point she used her yacht to decoy government boats and aircraft away from the direction her husband was taking. I do not regard her conduct as fitting in any British subject, let alone one who has been highly honoured by Her Majesty the Queen."
Early the next morning Dame Margot was put on a plane to New York. There she met up with two friends, Judy Tatham and Alistair Mcleod, who had helped to organise the coup and buy green jerseys for the military expedition that included 125 Cuban soldiers.
The British consul general in New York, nonetheless, arranged for Tatham and Fonteyn to be flown back to London because the women feared that when details of the coup – against an administration with close ties to the US – leaked out they might be arrested. The consul general's wife, Lady Dixon, kept them hidden from the press while they waited for the flight.
Back in London, Profumo and his wife invited Dame Margot around to their home for an evening drink. "I had to pinch myself several times during her visit to be sure I wasn't dreaming the comic opera story which she unfolded," the minister recorded.
"She has been and still is deeply involved in Panamanian politics. She admitted visiting Cuba in January and, with her husband, seeing Dr Castro." The new Cuban head of state had promised aid to overthrow the Panamanian regime. "She was bit hazy about the extent of the aid offered, she said, because the talks were in Spanish, but she was certain the aid included men and arms.
"The plan was to land somewhere and collect in the hills but the gaffe was blown (by fishermen), she said, so it was hurriedly decided that the game was up and her husband must go into hiding.
"She mistakenly threw some white armbands into the sea (meant to distinguish rebels when they landed) rather than incriminating letters and her husband's address book – which were hastily packed with machine guns and ammunition and landed with her husband and his followers."
The weapons were buried but later uncovered when one of the rebels "squealed" to his captors. They included letters from Tatham and Arias's address book that held the name of his followers as well as those of "Hollywood personalities" such as John Wayne and Errol Flynn.
"Dame Margot," Profumo concluded, "was at pains to say that her husband's intentions were strictly honourable and that, although he realised that revolutions were not very pleasant things, he was prepared to go to any extremes to help the ordinary people of Panama who ... were having a raw deal."
The Foreign Office accepted that her admission had been made in confidence and did not pass details about Cuban involvement on to the US. Roberto Arias sought refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Panama and was eventually allowed to fly out of the country.
Fonteyn later sent a Profumo a note from her home in Kensington, west London. "I do want to thank you very much indeed for your extreme kindness to me," she wrote. "My husband is definitely 'out' at last and I am trying to fly down to Rio this evening. I do hope that you and Valerie [Profumo's wife] will have time to come in and see us when we are both back – and definitely not plotting!"
Profumo, better known for his role in a call girl scandal, was forced to resign in 1963. The following year Arias was shot and paralysed when he returned to Panama. Dame Margot Fonteyn died in 1991.
When I mentioned that Cuba had interfered in the internal affairs of panama my sppelling was corrected and I was called a fool because google did not have an article on it... Funny dont you think I am told by experts in dogs defecating in Havana I am a liar.. Well the Guardian goes and tells the story of Dame Margot Fontyn and the Cuban interference.. Still I get every thing.. still the good old Guardian journalists must be running dogs, liars, idiots
ame Margot Fonteyn: the ballerina and the attempted coup in Panama
Confidential files reveal her role in Cuban-backed military plot
(6)
Tweet this (7)
Owen Bowcott
The Guardian, Friday 28 May 2010
Article history
Dame Margot Fonteyn, whose husband launched a failed Panamanian coup attempt in 1959. Photograph: PA Wire
The extraordinary conspiratorial role played by Dame Margot Fonteyn in a Cuban-backed military coup aimed at overthrowing the government of Panama is revealed in confidential government files released today.
The British prima ballerina confessed her extensive involvement to the Foreign Office minister John Profumo shortly after fleeing the abortive revolution.
The extent of her complicity – and the government's reluctance to inform the US – is detailed in files from 1959 that have been sent to the National Archives in Kew, west London.
The "slap dash comedy", as Profumo described the episode, was brought to the attention of the British ambassador in Panama, Sir Ian Henderson, in the early hours of 21 April that year.
The Duke of Edinburgh, visiting the Central American state, had left the country two days earlier. Dame Margot, an internationally acclaimed performer famed for her partnership with the Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, was on holiday nearby but had failed to attend a reception in his honour.
"Police confirm information reaching me that Dame Margot Fonteyn ... was detained for questioning late last night at Panama City prison," Henderson cabled urgently to the Foreign Office.
His immediate concern was for the safety of such a "public figure". Henderson woke the Panamanian foreign minister and raced down to the prison. He was initially denied access.
The tone of outraged diplomatic protocol was gradually replaced by one of accumulating suspicions. Fonteyn, then 39 and at the height of her professional career, was married to a Panamanian, Dr Roberto Arias, who was the son of a former president and onetime ambassador to London.
Reports began to emerge that Arias had landed a band of armed rebels, some Cuban, from his yacht. Fishermen had spotted weapons being landed.
Henderson was allowed into the jail to see her that evening. His despatch to the Foreign Office explained how he had dealt with the "incarceration" of the prima ballerina of Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden.
"I found her physically well though naturally a little confused at first and with no complaints about her accommodation," he wrote. "She had been allotted the prison's 'presidential suite', reserved for political prisoners of high standing ... and the English-speaking 2nd Lieutenant detailed to look after her was careful to provide fresh flowers for her dressing table.
"My conversation with Dame Margot, part of which she tried to carry on in conspiratorial whispers – which I discouraged in front of the police – convinced me, if I needed convincing, that the Arias family are conspiring against the government and that she herself had at least on arrival here complied in their rebellious designs.
"She knew that her husband was gun-running, she knew that he was accompanied by rebels and at one point she used her yacht to decoy government boats and aircraft away from the direction her husband was taking. I do not regard her conduct as fitting in any British subject, let alone one who has been highly honoured by Her Majesty the Queen."
Early the next morning Dame Margot was put on a plane to New York. There she met up with two friends, Judy Tatham and Alistair Mcleod, who had helped to organise the coup and buy green jerseys for the military expedition that included 125 Cuban soldiers.
The British consul general in New York, nonetheless, arranged for Tatham and Fonteyn to be flown back to London because the women feared that when details of the coup – against an administration with close ties to the US – leaked out they might be arrested. The consul general's wife, Lady Dixon, kept them hidden from the press while they waited for the flight.
Back in London, Profumo and his wife invited Dame Margot around to their home for an evening drink. "I had to pinch myself several times during her visit to be sure I wasn't dreaming the comic opera story which she unfolded," the minister recorded.
"She has been and still is deeply involved in Panamanian politics. She admitted visiting Cuba in January and, with her husband, seeing Dr Castro." The new Cuban head of state had promised aid to overthrow the Panamanian regime. "She was bit hazy about the extent of the aid offered, she said, because the talks were in Spanish, but she was certain the aid included men and arms.
"The plan was to land somewhere and collect in the hills but the gaffe was blown (by fishermen), she said, so it was hurriedly decided that the game was up and her husband must go into hiding.
"She mistakenly threw some white armbands into the sea (meant to distinguish rebels when they landed) rather than incriminating letters and her husband's address book – which were hastily packed with machine guns and ammunition and landed with her husband and his followers."
The weapons were buried but later uncovered when one of the rebels "squealed" to his captors. They included letters from Tatham and Arias's address book that held the name of his followers as well as those of "Hollywood personalities" such as John Wayne and Errol Flynn.
"Dame Margot," Profumo concluded, "was at pains to say that her husband's intentions were strictly honourable and that, although he realised that revolutions were not very pleasant things, he was prepared to go to any extremes to help the ordinary people of Panama who ... were having a raw deal."
The Foreign Office accepted that her admission had been made in confidence and did not pass details about Cuban involvement on to the US. Roberto Arias sought refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Panama and was eventually allowed to fly out of the country.
Fonteyn later sent a Profumo a note from her home in Kensington, west London. "I do want to thank you very much indeed for your extreme kindness to me," she wrote. "My husband is definitely 'out' at last and I am trying to fly down to Rio this evening. I do hope that you and Valerie [Profumo's wife] will have time to come in and see us when we are both back – and definitely not plotting!"
Profumo, better known for his role in a call girl scandal, was forced to resign in 1963. The following year Arias was shot and paralysed when he returned to Panama. Dame Margot Fonteyn died in 1991.
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