The Daniel Ortega government is now investigating the director behind the Miss Nicaragua beauty pageant after it was revealed that new Miss Universe Sheynnis Palacios protested against the dictator in 2018.

The government of Nicaragua has been stamping down on all forms of dissent since the 2018 protests, and critics of Ortega have pointed out that the newly-crowned Miss Universe joined the 2018 protests against Ortega. However, when this came out, the Ortega regime retaliated by going after the Miss Nicaragua organizers, particularly pageant director Karen Celebertti.

The Associated Press reported that the charges against 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." She is accused of "intentionally rigging contests" so that "anti-government beauty queens" such as Palacios would win. The Nicaraguan government claims that this is all part of a plot to overthrow it, though no evidence has been presented.

Initially, the Ortega regime celebrated Palacios's victory and called her Miss Universe crowning a moment of "legitimate joy and pride." However, their view of her quickly degraded after the beauty queen's Facebook posts resurfaced, as she posted photos of herself participating in one of the 2018 anti-government protests.

According to the Nicaraguan National Police, Celebertti "participated actively, on the internet and in the streets in the terrorist actions of a failed coup," referencing the 2018 protests. The pageant organizer managed to escape police after she was reportedly denied permission to enter the country shortly after Nicaragua's big moment of national pride.

A statement said that the pageant director committed "treason against the motherland" and claimed that she "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."

Miss Nicaragua Organizer Now Banned in Nicaragua After Sheynnis Palacios's Miss Universe Win

Shortly after Palacios won Miss Universe and after it came out that she protested against the government in 2018, Karen Celebertti and her daughter were detained upon their arrival at the Managua airport. However, they soon deported them to Mexico, allowing her to escape.

READ MORE: Miss Universe 2023: Sheyniss Palacios Makes History for Winning First Ms. Universe Crown for Nicaragua

Celebritti, who is accused of running a "beauty queen coup," is a Nicaraguan citizen. It was unclear why she was deported days before an investigation into her was launched.

According to France 24, police have also searched her home and briefly detained her husband, Martin Arguello. Vice President and First Lady Rosario Murillo reportedly ordered that she be barred from entering the country. 

Miss Universe Sheynnis Palacios Now a Symbol of Resistance in Nicaragua Against the Dictator

When she won the Miss Universe crown, Nicaraguans took to the streets and celebrated. Now, that moment of national pride is quickly being repressed as celebrating her victory is now being seen as a form of "coup."

Palacios rose from belonging to a low-income family to becoming the world's most-renowned beauty queen, and her story is resonating with Nicaraguans, according to The Guardian. With her past of protesting against the Ortega regime and the government retaliating against her. Many are now using her as a symbol of defiance against the dictator.

Palacios herself has not said anything political, but her protesting past was enough to have many criticize the government, which is now cracking down on those critics. This included imprisoning a TikToker who defended Palacios against official criticism, as well as two artists who painted a mural of her in celebration of her victory.

It is still unclear if the new Miss Universe will be allowed to go back to her home country, though. If anything, she may be forced to live like many other government critics now living in exile in other countries, such as Costa Rica and the US.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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