Sandinista Regime Imprisons Family of Miss Universe 2023 Pageant Director on Treason Charges
When 23-year-old Sheynnis Palacios, Miss Nicaragua 2023, won the Miss Universe Pageant last month in San Salvador, the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua declared itself happy. These beauty contests in Nicaragua have been popular for many decades and tend to be a big deal in the small country. Miss Nicaragua had won the contest for the first time.
Sheynnis Palacios' victory sent a proud celebratory wave through the country and people took to the streets waving the white-and-blue national flag in a patriotic display. It seemed like a fairy-tale win. Palacios is of humble, hard-working middle-class origins. Within minutes of her victory, every one of my Facebook friends from and in Nicaragua had something to say about it, posted congratulatory messages on their walls, boasted and posted pictures of the beauty queen, and joined her ballooning social media networks.
They said and posted harmless, corny things. Sheynnis Palacios was on top of the world. She is the Queen of the Castle. She is an ambassador for Nicaragua. She is a representative of the country's beauties. Some commented on how stylish the white-and-blue gown she wore. Some even commented that the colours looked remarkably like the mantle that a popular image of the Virgin Mary favoured in Nicaragua wears. Later the Sandinista regime would interpret the same gown and its colours to be an anti-government statement.
Strangely, the massive surge in the new Miss Universe popularity, the colours she wore at the pageant, and the burst of spontaneous celebrations it provoked in her native country waving the white-and-blue official flag have landed the beauty queen in political hot water. The country's vice-president, Rosario Murillo (pictured below), who rules with her husband President Daniel Ortega, has decided Palacios' victory is an affront to their power.
You read that last part right. I will not blame you if at this point you think that I am joking, but I am not. I will agree that if the situation was not dire and lives were not at stake, the whole thing would be laughable, and therein lies the tragedy for Nicaragua, for Palacios, and for Karen Celebertti and her family.
The newly-minted Miss Universe wisely decided not to return to her native country right away, suspecting she could be trapped inside her homeland, not allowed to leave. Her new role requires a lot of travelling so this is a wise choice.
But hell knows no fury like a witch scorned, to paraphrase William Shakespeare. Unable to force-feed their version of a poisoned apple to Palacios, the Nicaraguan regime has gone after the woman who owned the franchise for the Miss Nicaragua pageant, Karen Celebertti, pictured below. (Full disclosure, I know Karen Celebertti personally. We were friends as kids, and our respective parents were friends).
Upon her return to Nicaragua from the Miss Universe competition, after delivering the country the first Miss Universe in its history, Celebertti was not allowed to enter the country (in violation of arts. 7.1.d and 7.2.d of the Rome Statutes). In addition, she was informed that her husband and son had been imprisoned on unspecified charges
The crimes of the Celeberttis are the same charge used against any person in Nicaragua suspected of harbouring any opposition to the Ortega Sandinista regime: treason. Since 2018, when protests and opposition were banned, scores of Nicaraguan citizens, including some former Sandinistas, have been falsely accused of treason or money laundering, and sometimes both. The accused have been found guilty in show trials modelled after the Stalinist Moscow Trials of the 1920s. Since 2020, the Nicaraguan government enacted a law that allows it to label opponents as 'traitors to the homeland'. Treason charges carry severe penalties, including long-term imprisonment.
Anyone who dares to challenge or even subtly question the power of the ruling duo becomes a target. The authorities don't hesitate to use brute police force and concoct judicial proceedings to eradicate anyone they perceive as a potential competitor, including Roman Catholic bishops. Their objective of stifling opposition simultaneously injects a profound sense of fear into the masses.
Like in Stalinist Moscow, proximity to the ruling couple is not a guarantee of safety. Several people close to the regime and suspected of being disloyal have been thrown into prison on similar trumped-up charges. No one is safe. One former Sandinista ally recently died in prison. Last Spring, over 200 political prisoners were stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality in violation of more international laws, and forced into exile.
Specifically, a few days after the coronation of Palacios as Miss Universe, the Sandinista regime articulated details of the charges against Celebertti and her family. The NYT reports that "the authoritarian government claimed that the director of the Miss Nicaragua contest, which had chosen Miss Palacios to represent the country at the global competition, was part of an 'anti-patriotic conspiracy' to overthrow President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo." It's always the same. The tyrants can't even be bothered to trump up more original charges
And so, Sheynnis Palacios is now Miss Nicaragua in exile. I am not sure that there has ever been an outlaw Miss Universe before because that is what Palacios has unofficially become in her own country. It is easy to recall Nelson Mandela's words in this context: "When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw." The Miss Universe Organization has yet to comment on the situation.
Karen Celebertti has been forced to step away from her role following the allegations and political intrigues. The prevalent conjecture in Managua is that her withdrawal was required for her husband and son's eventual release and likely expulsion from the country. Moreover, rumour has it that the couple-tyrants plans to replace Celebertti with one of their family members at the head of the Miss Nicaragua franchise.
However, none of this should be surprising. Over the past half-decade, the Sandinista regime under the Ortegas has made enormous efforts to gain full dominion over the entire social fabric of Nicaragua. This is after having already taken hold of all formal and informal state institutions and exerting control over the press. Currently, they are at war with the Roman Catholic Church for what is left of the moral soul of the country.
Sandinistas had shown a remarkable indifference toward the Miss Nicaragua contest, for as long as it was not perceived as a threat. But now, they aim to turn it into a tool for their propaganda, planning to politicize, Sandinize, and Orteguize the pageant for their gain. They will also make sure it cannot ever become a tool against them.
Tyranny always stems from an insatiable hunger for power. And because there can never be enough, those in control take extreme and unjust measures to further solidify their grasp on power. Grabbing control of a beauty pageant is the severe manifestation of a pathological desire for total control. As George Orwell pointed out in "1984," for tyrants "Power is not a means; it is an end. Establishing a dictatorship doesn't safeguard a revolution, rather it's the revolution itself that is crafted as a means to establish the dictatorship.”
Under such pathological disorder, when one lacks authority and confidence, even the inoffensive popularity of a 23-year-old beauty queen acquires the appearance of an imminent threat to one’s power.