Miss Universe Nicaragua Director Arrested for Conspiracy, Money Laundering, and Spreading Fake News

NEW YORK (Dagbladet): On Friday, the director and owner of Miss Universe in Nicaragua, Karen Celebertti, was secured by the police for conspiracy against the authorities, money laundering and spreading fake news, writes Reuters.

Both Celebertti, her husband and son are charged with “treason against the motherland”, AP reports.

It happens a few weeks after the Central American country won Miss Universe for the first time.

Let his rescuer die as a prisoner

Turned

Police allege that Celebertti’s local Miss Universe organization has been used to “turn pageant contestants into political traps and political ambushes funded by foreign agents”.

The drama is said to have started with the victory of Miss Nicaragua, Sheynnis Palacios on November 18.

This has never happened before

First, the country’s president, Daniel Ortega, described the victory as a moment of “legitimate joy and pride”, writes AP.

However, this quickly changed when the next day Palacios posted a photo of herself on Facebook where she participated in one of the large mass demonstrations against the authorities in the country in 2018.

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At the time, the authorities brutally cracked down on the protests, and human rights organizations say that 355 people were killed by government forces. Ortega also claimed that the demonstrations were an attempted coup with support from abroad, and an attempt to remove him from power.

– Failed coup

However, the opposition claimed that Nicaraguans were demonstrating against his increasingly repressive rule and a seemingly endless desire to hold on to power.

In a statement from the police in Nicaragua, it is said that Miss Director Celebertti “actively participated on the internet and in the streets in acts of terrorism for a failed coup”. It is interpreted as a reference to the demonstrations in 2018, AP writes.

Celebertti will be at large after she was refused entry to Nicaragua a few days ago. However, local media reports that her son and husband will be in police custody.