‘POLITICAL AMBUSHES’

Miss Universe Pageant Was Rigged, Nicaraguan Police Say

Controversy arose when Miss Universe winner, Sheynnis Palacios, had pictures of her at an anti-government protest resurface online.

The director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant allegedly rigged the contests so that anti-government queens would win in an attempt to overthrow the current government, according to Nicaraguan police, who announced Friday that they want to arrest the pageant’s director, Karen Celebertti. In November, when Nicaragua’s Sheynnis Palacios won Miss Universe, controversy arose when pictures of Palacios at a mass anti-government protest that had been posted to Facebook resurfaced. Police blamed Celebertti saying 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.”