Nicaraguan Sheynnis Palacios, crowned Miss Universe 2023, has unwillingly become a symbol of opposition to President Daniel Ortega, who sees hope in his global presence.
• Also read: Nicaraguan Sheynnis Palacios was elected Miss Universe
Since he became the first Central American to win the beauty pageant in San Salvador on Saturday, the 23-year-old’s photo has gone viral on social media among thousands of Nicaraguan exiles and made headlines. Criticism of Ortega, described as a “dictator” by the opposition.
Photos from 2018 showing her waving a Nicaraguan flag during anti-government protests in which more than 300 people died have remained popular since her coronation, which brought Nicaraguans to the streets of Managua and other cities across the country. in full bloom: this has not been the case since the ban on gatherings five years ago.
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Blue and white flags, a symbol of the fight against the government in contrast to the red and black flags of the ruling Sandinista Front, fluttered in the wind amid shouts of joy.
“I am so happy to see the joy of Nicaraguans and how they bring the secret blue and white to the streets. Thanks to Sheynnis …,” explained on the social network X the writer Gioconda Belli, who was exiled to Spain and deprived of her citizenship by the government.
“In these hours and in these days of new victories, we are witnessing a gross exploitation and a gross and vicious terrorist communication aimed at turning a beautiful moment of pride and well-deserved celebration into destructive coups,” criticized Vice President Rosario Murillo, wife of Mr. Ortega, made a statement on Wednesday.
Daniel Ortega AFP
“National symbol”
The young woman’s modest home in a Managua neighborhood, outside which dozens of people celebrated until the early hours of Sunday morning, has since been visited by city hall officials.
Only afterwards did the government declare in a press release that it was joining the “just celebrations” triggered by the triumph of “our Miss Universe”. Pure “opportunism” ridiculed the opposition media, which came mainly from neighboring Costa Rica.
On Tuesday they reported that the government had banned two artists from completing a fresco depicting Miss Universe on a street in the northern town of Esteli. A photo of the unfinished work is circulating on social networks.
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“It is impossible to abstract this harmless competition from political and social reality. It became a national and emotional symbol that revived hopes. And the government understood it,” explains Nicaraguan journalist Wilfredo Miranda, exiled in Costa Rica and winner of the Ortega y Gasset Prize (founded in 1984 by the newspaper El País).
Many exiles even saw the costume in which Sheynnis Palacios was crowned, white with a blue cape that resembled the dress of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, patron saint of Nicaragua, as a symbol of anti-government demands and the defense of a “persecuted” Catholic Church .
“Thank you for bringing joy to our suffering people, thank you for giving us hope,” wrote Monsignor Silvio Baez on X while in exile in the United States.
“Miss Bunuelos”
Sheynnis Palacios comes from a humble family in Diriamba, Carazo department, and together with her mother and grandmother, she founded a business selling Nicaraguan donuts made from cassava and honey.
Before her victory, a pro-government television anchor gave her the contemptuous nickname “Miss buñuelos,” after the name of these filled donuts. What the Nicaraguan media has not forgotten in exile.
They also did not forget that the new beauty queen studied social communication at the Central American Jesuit University (UCA), which was closed last August by the government, which described it as a “center of terrorism”.
The Miss Universe, who was celebrated at Miami airport as she embarked on a multi-country tour after leaving El Salvador, has so far dedicated her victory only to the six million Nicaraguans, whether in the country or in exile.