Nicaragua’s authoritarian government has a new target for possible exile — the winner of the Miss Universe pageant — after learning she had participated in protests as a college student in 2018.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The government of Nicaragua has become increasingly authoritarian. Over the past year, they have exiled political foes, poets, journalists who are considered threats. Now they have a new target – the winner of this year’s Miss Universe pageant. NPR’s Eyder Peralta reports.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: This was the moment that made Nicaragua erupt into revelry.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: The new Miss Universe is Nicaragua.
(APPLAUSE)
PERALTA: On stage, 23-year-old Sheynnis Palacios got her crown. She cried. She waved. She disappeared into the arms of her fellow beauty queens. And in Nicaragua, something happened that had not happened in a long time.
LUIS: (Through interpreter) On the streets, there was only happiness. People took to the streets.
ROBERTO: (Through interpreter) We hadn’t seen anything like that since the big protests in 2018. We saw police trucks, but they didn’t do anything to us. Everyone danced. Everyone drank beer.
ROSA: (Through interpreter) You could say viva Sheynnis. You could chant another name that wasn’t Daniel or Rosario.
PERALTA: That’s Luis, Roberto and Rosa, three young Nicaraguans who took to the streets that day. They asked we only use their first names because since 2018, the government has punished any critical speech. It’s been that way in Nicaragua since the government cracked down on huge anti-government demonstrations. Police killed hundreds of protesters. And the government of President Daniel Ortega, who has been in power off and on for nearly 30 years, jailed or exiled nearly all his critics, everyone from singers to poets to a prominent Catholic bishop. But that day, when Sheynnis Palacios became the first Central American to win Miss…
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