Nicaragua: New Miss Universe Sheynnis Palacios' Win Shows Deep Political Divide in Daniel Ortega-Ruled Country

Miss Nicaragua Sheynnis Palacios has been crowned Miss Universe, and both the Daniel Ortega regime and his critics are using the win to their advantage. For the government, it is a rare PR win but for the opposition, it also presents a good way to further spread the injustices being done under the dictatorial government.

President Daniel Ortega's government has expressed that New Miss Universe Sheynnis Palacios is the country's "legitimate joy and pride" in a statement made last Sunday. However, this quickly turned into condemnation after it turned out that Palacios graduated from a college that was the center of 2018 protests against the Ortega regime. It also turned out that the new Miss Universe even participated in the anti-Ortega marches that were quickly and violently suppressed by the government.

Because of those 2018 protests, ordinary Nicaraguans are not allowed to carry the national flag in marches. However, with Palacios's win, ordinary citizens took to the streets to celebrate while waving the Nicaraguan flag and the opposition took advantage of this.

According to the Associated Press, people were parading the blue and white colors of Nicaragua and not the red and black Sandinista banner, and the government was not happy about it.

In addition, photos of the new Miss Universe participating in the 2018 protests soon resurfaced on Facebook. This has galvanized the opposition, with many leaders congratulating her openly on social media.

The opposition leaders congratulating her include Roman Catholic priest Silvio Baez, who was once jailed for opposing Ortega. He wrote, "Thank you for bringing joy to our long-suffering country! Thank you for giving us hope for a better future for our beautiful country!"

Nicaragua Government Lashes Out on Rhetoric Reminiscent of North Korea

As the opposition celebrates Palacios' win and the surfaced images of her joining the anti-Ortega protests, Vice President and First Lady Rosario Murillo lashed out Wednesday in what CTV News describes as a "clunky rhetoric reminiscent of North Korea."

"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," she said in a statement.

Nicaragua has been clamping down on all forms of opposition against the Ortega regime since the 2018 protests. The government jailed or exiled political opponents. It also shut down independent media, kicked out Roman Catholic missionaries and priests, and denied opponents of their Nicaraguan citizenship.

Miss Universe Sheynnis Palacios To Focus More on Mental Health Advocacies

Meanwhile, the new Miss Universe has not yet commented on the political situation happening in her country. However, Miss Nicaragua Sheynnis Palacios has been very loud in her chosen advocacy of mental health.

The 23-year-old communications specialist has said that she wants to work to promote mental health. According to Marca, this is because she has previously suffered from debilitating anxiety attacks herself. She recently opened up about her insecurities in an interview with Telemundo.

"Number one, with my height, because in my country it's not normal to be 1.77, 1.80, it's considered a pretty big height, so it was typical for people to say to me 'How's the air up there' (...) that gave me a lot of complexes," the new Miss Universe admitted. "Another thing that made me feel very self-conscious for a long time was my skin color, which now I love. I didn't feel it was discrimination at the time, I self-sabotaged myself."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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