Miss Universe Pleases Nicaraguans, Infuriates its Rulers

December 3, 2023December 3, 2023

The recently crowned Miss Universe, Sheynnis Palacios, with her mother, grandmother and brother when she graduated from the Central American University in 2022. Photo: Facebook profile

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES – I appreciate beauty from a person, animal, flora and fauna, the sky, art, etc., as much as the next person. The money-publicity-fluff event to elect a Miss from each country and then a Miss Universe has never been my personal cup of tea. Nonetheless, the outcome of last month’s Miss Universe contest held in San Salvador has taken on a new meaning for the winner’s home country, Nicaragua, and those who follow events there.

Sheynnis Palacios is no airhead, which often appears to be a requirement for such beauty contests. Besides getting a degree in communications at the recently confiscated Central American University (UCA) in Managua she showed her blue and white national colors back in 2018 during the nationwide civic rebellion against the Ortega-Murillo government.

When interviewed by CNN days after her victory, Sheynnis shied away from the political questions and concentrated on her path to victory and how happy she was to bring some joy to her fellow compatriots at home and abroad. She is proud of her humble origins and makes no secret of the fact that she financed part of her university studies by working in the family business selling Nacatamales and buñelos. She also talked about her project to give visibility to the mental health problems so many face. Not the usual pedigree I associate with beauty queens.

Nearly six years ago, a political earthquake hit Nicaragua and is still producing aftershocks. At the time, Sheynnis publicized her participation in the massive demonstrations, although she later erased these posts from her profile. However, the vengeful Nicaraguan Vice-dictator, Rosario Murillo, was unforgiving. She had her people campaign against Sheynnis on the social networks, making fun of her poor upbringing as if it were a crime.

Reportedly, Murillo wasn’t planning on letting Sheynnis return home to Nicaragua after the contest – that is, before she was declared the winner. Murillo then wrote a text congratulating her and saying she was welcome. However, when a joyful Nicaraguan public took to the streets waving blue and white flags to celebrate their country’s victory – without so much as asking permission – she quickly changed her tune. In the following days, Murillo was railing against those who celebrated the naming of Miss Universe accusing them of being “outlaws and ungrateful coup plotters, now stateless people.”

Let me note here, that for five+ years, waving the Nicaraguan flag in the street, be it one person or a group, is considered sedition by the regime, unless the government itself sponsored it.

Murillo, who sees enemies behind every door, like most unpopular Kings and Queens, not only implied Sheynnis wasn’t welcome in Murillo’s country, but also refused to let the owner of Nicaragua’s Miss Universe franchise, Karen Celebretti, reenter Nicaragua with her daughter when they attempted to return home from attending the contest. Celebretti’s husband and son are now being held incommunicado, presumably in jail. To put icing on the cake, the dictatorship’s police ransacked the Celebretti’s home and that of her daughter, the usual prelude to confiscation.

In retrospect, all Sheynnis had to do to assure her official welcome was to thank the dictators. Had she done so, there would most likely have been no problem. However, after her victory, she didn’t mention Ortega or Murillo, for good or bad, and the VPs jealousy sent off a violent torrent of adjectives in one of her daily monologues.

Since taking the crown, Sheynnis has taken the high ground not letting politics into her statements, as par the role. Meanwhile, Murillo, her chief detractor at home, has once again dragged herself in the dirt.