Summary
31 May 2010
Secret documents recently made public show that the British ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn was heavily involved in a plot to overthrow the government of Panama in 1959.
Reporter:
Rebecca Jones
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Report
The Foreign Office documents reveal Dame Margot Fonteyn was suspected of being far more involved in the attempted coup than previously thought. They accuse her of complicity, of knowing that her husband was gathering weapons and rebels.
The British Ambassador to Panama condemned her conduct as "highly reprehensible and irresponsible". He said it "wasn't fitting in any British subject, let alone someone who's been highly honoured by the Queen".
After her arrest in Panama and subsequent release, Dame Margot flew to London where she met the Foreign Office Minister John Profumo. In a memo, which has also just been released, he reveals she told him she'd met Fidel Castro, who promised to help her husband overthrow the Panamanian government.
Profumo writes he had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming what he describes as the "comic opera story".
Rebecca Jones, 大象传媒 Arts Correspondent
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Grammar
- reveal
give information about something that wasn't known before
- suspected of being
believed to be
- attempted coup
a failed action to take control of the government of a country
- complicity
knowing about and being involved in something bad
- rebels
unofficial soldiers who are fighting against the official government of a country
- condemned her conduct
strongly disapproved of her behaviour
- highly reprehensible
very bad and deserving of criticism
- wasn't fitting
wasn't the right way to behave
- a memo
a short note
- overthrow
change by force
