Ortega Regime Banishes Director of “Miss Nicaragua” Pageant
The director of the Miss Nicaragua franchise was returning from Mexico, together with her daughter. Immigration officials sent both of them back to Mexico.
HAVANA TIMES – Karen Celebertti, director of the “Miss Nicaragua” pageant, was banished from the country on November 23, by order of the Ortega-Murillo regime. According to the digital news site Mosaico CSI, Nicaragua’s Office of Immigration and Foreign Affairs denied entrance to Celebertti and her daughter when their plane landed in Managua. Both were returning to the country after participating in activities tied to the recent Miss Universe contest.
Karen Celebertti and her daughter were retained at the Managua airport, then forced to return to Mexico. Celebertti had gone to Mexico after participating in the Miss Universe pageant in El Salvador, where Nicaraguan Sheynnis Palacios was crowned the contest winner.
According to the information received, Aeromexico, a Mexican-based airline, hadn’t informed them about the government’s decision not to let them enter, unlike other cases where passengers refused entry were informed via an e-mail from the airline company they were flying with. In this case, both Celebertti and her daughter only found out once they landed in Managua, and after several hours of waiting.
Karen Celebertti has directed the Miss Nicaragua franchise since 2001. She herself was a contestant in 1992, representing the northern Nicaraguan department of Matagalpa where she’s from. She went on to compete internationally for the title of Miss Hispano-American, and remained involved in the world of beauty contests until she reached the position of directing the national pageant.
Immigration orders shifted after Miss Nicaragua’s win
Diverse accounts on news sites and social media affirm that on November 17th – the date of the Miss Universe pageant – the dictatorship had already issued an order to deny Karen Celebertti her right to return to the country. However, the order was revoked when Nicaraguan Sheynnis Palacios won the title of Miss Universe. These same sources also affirm that Miss Nicaragua herself would have been de facto banished, since they had already ordered that she not be allowed to reenter Nicaragua. Nonetheless, hours before the pageant, that order was also rescinded.
“The order was revoked and they were both notified that they were “welcome” in Nicaragua,” Mosaico CSI confirmed with a source close to the case.
Karen Celebertti directs the Silhuetas Modeling and Promotion Agency, and formed part of the delegation that accompanied Sheyniss Palacios in San Salvador. She then left for Mexico with Palacios, just before the newly crowned Miss Universe headed to New York, where she’ll be living for a year while attending to the commitments of the international franchise.
According to Mosaico CSI, Karen Celebertti’s mother, husband and son all returned to Nicaragua on November 19, while the pageant director planned to rejoin them on November 23. However, “after being retained in the Managua airport, they were returned to the Mexican territory,” the online site detailed.
Public rejoicing provokes Rosario Murillo’s fury
On November 22, Rosario Murillo, the vice president and spokeswoman for the Ortega dictatorship, lashed out against the celebrations in Nicaragua for the triumph of Sheynnis Palacios as the new Miss Universe. She described them as “fabricated provocations” of those who, according to her, “intend to turn a beautiful and well-deserved moment of pride and celebration into a destructive coup d’état mentality.”
Following the naming of the Nicaraguan representative as Miss Universe 2023, thousands of Nicaraguans took to the country’s streets to shout cheers and wave the national flag joyfully. These demonstrations of patriotism were a relief for Nicaraguans, who have spent over five years in a de facto police state.
The celebration continued with two artists from Esteli, who started painting a mural in homage to Sheynnis Palacios on November 21. However, police officers arrived at the site and prohibited them from continuing. “That’s as far as the mural went. We had plans to finish, we kept our word, but the authorities didn’t allow us to continue,” posted one of the artists on his Instagram and TikTok accounts. Hours later, the wall where they had started the work was panted over in white, according to complaints on social networks. The prohibition of the painting of a mural dedicated to Miss Universe reminded Nicaraguans of the permanent surveillance in which they live, and that grows day by day, despite the recess for the historic conquest of a crown.
“They should stop manhandling the deserved triumphs of a pretty girl, to hide their insignificance and incapacity, and to cloud our blessed waters with their ridiculous and corny delusions,” Murillo declared.
The regime’s six-page statement does not directly name the new Miss Universe or the pageant. It presents a stark contrast with the congratulatory communication published over the weekend in which they proclaimed: “Nicaragua is celebrating with its queen!”
Read more from Nicaragua here on Havana Times.