KIDNAPPING PLAN

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31656, 17 April 1968, Page 2

KIDNAPPING PLAN

(N.Z. Prest Assn— Copyright)

LONDON, April 15. The ballerina, Dame Margot Fonteyn, tonight revealed how she planned to kidnap the chief of Panama’s National Guard if her husband were arrested, the “Daily Sketch” reported.

“My husband knew nothing of the plot, but I feared for his safety,” she is reported as saying. “This was just a preliminary precaution, in case he was put in prison. I meant no harm to the head of the National Guard.” Her husband, Dr Roberto Arias, a Panama National Assembly deputy, has been paralysed since an assassination attempt was made on him in Panama in 1964. The “Daily Sketch" said that in spite of the news being revealed, Dame Margot Fonteyn was preparing to visit Panama soon. She will fly to America on Wednesday, and expects to be in Panama during next month’s National Assembly elections. She reportedly said she planned to send mercenaries from Britain to kidnap General of Brigade Bolivar Vallarino, “one of the strongmen

behind the stormy politics” of Panama. He was to be held for 10 days as a hostage guaranteeing her husband’s safety. A plafFwas worked out at meetings at the Royal Opera House. She called in a private detective to get a cost estimate and gave coded Words to be used in contact messages between her and the men to be sent out. “If 1 am arrested in Panama

it will be just too bad,” she said. “I wag detained for 24 hours some years ago. To me being there is a matter of conscience.”