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Nicaragua's Miss Universe title win exposes deep political divide

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaragua's increasingly isolated and repressive government thought it had scored a rare public relations victory last week when Miss Nicaragua Sheynnis Palacios won the Miss Universe competition.

But the "legitimate joy and pride” President Daniel Ortega's government expressed in a statement Sunday after the win quickly turned to angry condemnation, after it emerged that Palacios graduated from a college that was the center of 2018 protests against the regime — and apparently participated in the marches.

Ordinary Nicaraguans — who are largely forbidden to protest or carry the national flag in marches — took advantage of the Saturday night Miss Universe win as a rare opportunity to celebrate in the streets.

Their use of the blue-and-white national flag, as opposed to Ortega's red-and-black Sandinista banner, didn't sit well with the government.

Palacios' victory — along with photos she posted on Facebook in 2018 of herself participating in the protests — overjoyed Nicaragua's opposition.

Roman Catholic Rev. Silvio Báez, one of dozens of priests who have been jailed or forced into exile by the government, congratulated Palacios in his social media accounts.

“Thank you for bringing joy to our long-suffering country!,” Báez wrote. “Thank you for giving us hope for a better future for our beautiful country!”

With clunky rhetoric reminiscent of North Korea, Vice president and First Lady Rosario Murillo lashed out Wednesday at opposition social media sites (many run from exile) that celebrated Palacios' win as a victory for the opposition.

“In these days of a new victory, we are seeing the evil, terrorist commentators making a clumsy and insulting attempt to turn what should be a beautiful and well-deserved moment of pride into destructive coup-mongering,” Murillo said.

Thousands have fled into exile since Nicaraguan security forces violently put down mass anti-government protests in 2018. Ortega says the protests were an attempted coup with foreign backing, aiming for his overthrow.

Ortega's government seized and closed the Jesuit University of Central America in Nicaragua, which was a hub for 2018 protests against the Ortega regime, along with at least 26 other Nicaraguan universities.

The government has also outlawed or closed more than 3,000 civic groups and non-governmental organizations, arrested and expelled opponents, stripped them of their citizenship and confiscated their assets.

Palacios, who became the first Nicaraguan to win Miss Universe, has not commented on the situation.

During the contest, Palacios, 23, said she wants to work to promote mental health after suffering debilitating bouts of anxiety herself. She also said she wants to work to close the salary gap between the genders so that women can work in any area.

But on a since-deleted Facebook account under her name, Palacios posted photos of herself at a protest, writing she had initially been afraid of participating. “I didn't know whether to go, I was afraid of what might happen.”

Some who attended the march that day recall seeing the tall, striking Palacios there.

The protests were quickly put down and in the end, human rights officials say 355 people were killed by government forces.

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by Anonymousreply 13December 2, 2023 9:22 PM

Beauty is a bourgeois construct.

by Anonymousreply 1November 24, 2023 3:50 PM

Wow, this girl is brave.

She's quite the rebel, wearing that striking blue and white gown with the colors of Nicaragua's traditional flag, for the whole world to see.

Good for her!

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by Anonymousreply 2November 24, 2023 3:51 PM

Does she have to go back to Nicaragua?

by Anonymousreply 3November 24, 2023 3:53 PM

Sheyniss will spend a year living in New York City as part of her contract. Hopefully, she will be able to find work in the US or elsewhere after that.

by Anonymousreply 4November 24, 2023 3:55 PM

More defiance on-stage after her crowning.

As she's being whisked back stage by the Miss Universe officials, she unrolls a blue and white Nicaraguan flag, and flashes it to the audience!

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by Anonymousreply 5November 24, 2023 4:07 PM

For me, there will only be one Nicaraguan beauty queen

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by Anonymousreply 6November 24, 2023 4:08 PM

Nicaragua is almost a poor as Haiti, with little to celebrate so the reactions were OTT

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by Anonymousreply 7November 24, 2023 4:15 PM

I had no idea that Nicaragua was run by a dictator.

I thought those days of Central American dictators were over, but I guess not.

El Salvador is also run by a dictator. Bukele.

by Anonymousreply 8November 24, 2023 4:19 PM

[quote] Police charge director of Miss Nicaragua pageant with running 'beauty queen coup' plot

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaraguan police said Friday they want to arrest the director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant, accusing her of intentionally rigging contests so that anti-government beauty queens would win the pageants as part of a plot to overthrow the government.

The charges against pageant director Karen Celebertti would not be out of place in a vintage James Bond movie with a repressive, closed off government, coup-plotting claims, foreign agents and beauty queens.

It all started Nov. 18, when Miss Nicaragua, Nicaragua’s Sheynnis Palacios won the Miss Universe competition. The government of President Daniel Ortega briefly thought it had scored a rare public relations victory, calling her win a moment of “legitimate joy and pride.”

But the tone quickly soured the day after the win when it emerged that Palacios had posted photos of herself on Facebook participating in one of the mass anti-government protests in 2018.

The protests were violently repressed, and human rights officials say 355 people were killed by government forces. Ortega claimed the protests were an attempted coup with foreign backing, aiming for his overthrow. His opponents said Nicaraguans were protesting his increasingly repressive rule and seemingly endless urge to hold on to power.

A statement by the National Police claimed Celebertti “participated actively, on the internet and in the streets in the terrorist actions of a failed coup," an apparent reference to the 2018 protests.

Celebertti apparently slipped through the hands of police after she was reportedly denied permission to enter the country a few days ago. But some local media reported that her son and husband had been taken into custody.

Celebertti, her husband and son face charges of “treason to the motherland.” They have not spoken publicly about the charges against them.

Celebertti “remained in contact with the traitors, and offered to employ the franchises, platforms and spaces supposedly used to promote ‘innocent’ beauty pageants, in a conspiracy orchestrated to convert the contests into traps and political ambushes financed by foreign agents,” according to the statement.

It didn't help that many ordinary Nicaraguans — who are largely forbidden to protest or carry the national flag in marches — took advantage of the Miss Universe win as a rare opportunity to celebrate in the streets.

Their use of the blue-and-white national flag, as opposed to Ortega’s red-and-black Sandinista banner, further angered the government, who claimed the plotters “would take to the streets again in December, in a repeat of history's worst chapter of vileness.”

Just five days after Palacio's win, Vice President and First Lady Rosario Murillo was lashing out at opposition social media sites (many run from exile) that celebrated Palacios’ win as a victory for the opposition.

“In these days of a new victory, we are seeing the evil, terrorist commentators making a clumsy and insulting attempt to turn what should be a beautiful and well-deserved moment of pride into destructive coup-mongering,” Murillo said.

Ortega’s government seized and closed the Jesuit University of Central America in Nicaragua, which was a hub for 2018 protests against the Ortega regime, along with at least 26 other Nicaraguan universities.

The government has also outlawed or closed more than 3,000 civic groups and non-governmental organizations, arrested and expelled opponents, stripped them of their citizenship and confiscated their assets. Thousands have fled into exile.

Palacios, who became the first Nicaraguan to win Miss Universe, has not commented on the situation.

During the contest, Palacios, 23, said she wants to work to promote mental health after suffering debilitating bouts of anxiety herself. She also said she wants to work to close the salary gap between the genders.

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by Anonymousreply 9December 2, 2023 9:02 PM

Is it pronounced "Shenis"?

by Anonymousreply 10December 2, 2023 9:14 PM

Shay-Nees.

by Anonymousreply 11December 2, 2023 9:15 PM

r8 "The Group of Experts on Human Rights on Nicaragua is an independent body mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to conduct thorough and independent investigations into all alleged human rights violations and abuses committed in Nicaragua since April 2018. According to UN-appointed independent rights investigators, crimes against humanity committed in Nicaragua that have held the population there "hostage" have likely been committed by pro-Government groups and sanctioned at the highest level since 2018. Nicaragua derives its understanding of human rights from the Constitution of Nicaragua and international law, which states that fundamental human rights, such as freedom from slavery and freedom of expression, are enabled for all human beings without discrimination. The human rights situation in Nicaragua has continued to decline over the past three months, with detainees being held in appalling conditions, civic space shrinking, and an "unprecedented" rise in people fleeing the country, according to UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet"

by Anonymousreply 12December 2, 2023 9:16 PM

That's crazy, R12.

No wonder the people there were so ecstatic for her win.

It was like a little bright light for those people who are so oppressed.

by Anonymousreply 13December 2, 2023 9:22 PM
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