Roberto Emilio Arias (26 October 1918 – 22 November 1989),
Early life
Born in 1918, Arias was educated at the
Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, United States, and at St John's College, Cambridge, England. From 1942 to 1946, he edited his family's newspaper,
La Hora.
[ Obituary, New York Times, 23 November 1989.]
Marriage to Fonteyn
In February 1955, Arias married in Paris English ballerina
Margot Fonteyn, after divorcing his first wife, with whom he had three children. After his marriage, Arias was appointed as Panama's
ambassador to the United Kingdom. In 1959, he and Fonteyn were charged with attempted gun-smuggling from their
yacht off the coast of Panama and he was accused of fomenting a revolt against President Ernesto de la Guardia Jr. She was immediately deported to England; Arias took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy for two months and was then given safe conduct out of the country. Eventually the charges were dropped and, after a governmental change, the couple were permitted to return to Panama. Documents released in March 2010 by the British government showed that they were both involved in the unsuccessful coup attempt.
Politics
In May 1964, Arias was elected to the National Assembly, his first venture into active politics. Two months later, he was shot in an argument with a friend and former political associate, Alberto Jiménez, on a street corner in a suburb of
Panama City. It was widely rumored that the shooting was a result of an affair that Arias was having with Jimenez's wife.
[ Review of Meredith Daneman's biography Margot Fonteyn, New York Times, 5 December 2004.] Arias was treated for 18 months in British hospitals and spent the rest of his life as a
quadriplegic, using a wheelchair. One of the reasons Fonteyn continued to dance so late in life was to pay Arias' enormous medical bills. Colette Clark, a close friend who worked with Fonteyn on Royal Academy of Dance galas, said:
Personal life and death
During Fonteyn's absence from Panama on tour as a ballerina, a socialite named Anabella Vallarino would move into the house as his shadow wife and move out again before Fonteyn's return.
[ On the day of Arias' death on 22 November 1989, Vallarino committed suicide by swallowing a bottle of chlorine,]
In addition to Fonteyn, Arias was survived by two daughters, Querube Brillembourg and Rosita Vallarino; a son, Roberto Arias; two brothers, Harmodio and Gilberto; a sister, Rosario de Galindo, and six grandchildren.[
]
