Miss Nicaragua, Former Anti-Government Protest Participant
Police Claim "Manipulation to Let Anti-Government Beauty Win"
The Nicaraguan police have charged the director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant with treason and incitement of hatred. It is alleged that they manipulated the results to ensure Sheynis Palacios, who has a history of participating in anti-government protests, won the Miss Nicaragua pageant. Sheynis Palacios was crowned Miss Nicaragua and recently became the first Miss Nicaragua to win the Miss Universe crown.
According to foreign media including the Associated Press on the 2nd (local time), Nicaraguan police charged Karen Celeberti, the director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant, with treason and incitement of hatred. In a statement, the Nicaraguan police claimed, "Celeberti and her family turned an innocent beauty pageant into a political trap to overthrow the government." Celeberti, who is reportedly currently in El Salvador, has been banned from entering Nicaragua, and Palacios’s ability to enter the country is also uncertain. Local media also reported that Celeberti’s husband and son were recently arrested on treason charges.
Miss Nicaragua, the winner of Miss Universe, Sheynis Palacios [Image source=Captured from Sheynis Palacios Instagram]
On the 18th of last month, right after the news of Sheynis Palacios’s Miss Universe victory was announced, Nicaragua was swept up in a festive atmosphere. Palacios is the first Miss Universe from Central America and comes from a low-income family, making her a symbol of hope for many. The 23-year-old Palacios works as a TV host and model. She recently graduated from the Jesuit-founded Centroamericana University, which was confiscated by the government and returned to state ownership.
Daniel Ortega, the President of Nicaragua who has maintained a dictatorship through over 20 years of long-term rule, also congratulated Palacios on her Miss Universe win through a government statement. However, the situation changed 180 degrees the very next day. It was revealed that Palacios had posted photos on her Facebook from 2018 showing her participation in large-scale anti-government protests.
In response, Rosario Murillo, Vice President and wife of President Ortega, publicly condemned the coup plotters planning a 'fabricated provocation' under the pretext of celebrating the Miss Universe victory during a broadcast. She fiercely criticized Palacios and opposition figures congratulating her win, labeling them as 'terrorists' and 'forces of evil.'
Sheynis Palacios, who won the 72nd Miss Universe pageant held in El Salvador on the 18th of last month [Photo by AFP]
Earlier, controversy arose over the censorship of a mural celebrating the Miss Universe victory in Nicaragua.
On the 22nd of last month, mural artists Kevin Laguna Guevara and Oscar Danilo Paria Blandon, who work under the names 'Vink Art' and 'Torch Mistico,' posted on social media that their mural project commemorating the Miss Universe first-place win was banned by authorities. At the time, they were painting on private property in Estel?, about 150 km north of the capital Managua, but were soon stopped from continuing their work. The unfinished mural was reportedly painted over with white paint.
Guevara and others wrote on social media, "We had permission from the property owner and wanted to complete the mural, but we could not. It seems some people interpreted it as a political message." This post is now private.
President Ortega has faced criticism for suppressing individuals and groups critical of the government since the large-scale anti-government protests in 2018. He has shut down media outlets opposing him, blocked broadcasts, eliminated thousands of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and even imprisoned Catholic bishops to maintain his regime.
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