What the Ortega regime hates most is not being able to control the narrative about what people feel and manifest regarding Nicaraguan Sheyniss Palacios’ coronation as Miss Universe 2023.
By Suchit Chavez (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – The scene was a timeworn cliché, repeated over decades in countless beauty contests. The moment of suspense stretched out for at least an extra minute, until the announcement of the final winner, who – as in all beauty pageants of worth – bursts into tears. Sheyniss Palacios, Nicaraguan beauty queen, had just been crowned Miss Universe 2023, leaving Antonia Porslid, Miss Thailand, in second place, all on an elaborate set constructed at the National Gymnasium in El Salvador. It was November 18, 2023.
The Miss Universe contest, that age-old event so widely criticized in recent years for keeping the women contestants inside the exclusive bubble of beauty, silence, and masculine adoration, was invested with new meaning for many this time. It all began with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s announcement in January 2023 that the event would be held in his country.
With this gesture, Bukele followed in the footsteps of Colonel Arturo Armando Molina, one of the last heads of El Salvador’s military dictatorship, who used the contest in 1975 to give himself a varnish of legitimacy in the face of multiple denunciations of human rights abuses. Molina was one of the first rulers to make himself a central figure in the event and to personally greet all the attendees. Sound familiar?
The other new meaning arose from the deeply emotional reaction of Nicaraguans. Dozens of videos are available on YouTube, showing families totally glued to their TV screens with bated breath, while they wait to hear who was the Miss Universe winner: Sheynnis or Antonia. The triumph of their compatriot led them to scream, cry, jump u
