The director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant has announced her retirement from the organization, nine days after police accused her of “conspiracy” and other crimes.
“The time has come for my retirement,” Karen Celebertti wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I know that there will always be more opportunities for us.”
It was her first public statement since Nicaragua’s contestant, Sheynnis Palacios, was crowned Miss Universe on 18 November – becoming an unexpected symbol of hope for opponents of the Nicaraguan regime.
Palacios herself has said nothing overtly political during or since the contest, but before the pageant it emerged that in 2018 she had participated in mass street protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega.
Street celebrations after her win appeared to disconcert the government, which has kept a firm grip on public gatherings since it crushed the 2018 unrest.
A message from the government congratulating Palacios was published without the customary signature of either Ortega or Rosario Murillo, his wife and vice-president.
Murillo later went on air with allegations that “coup plotters” were planning “manufactured provocations” under the pretext of celebrating Miss Universe.
The government also detained a TikToker who defended Palacios against official criticism, and forced two artists to paint over a mural they had begun in her honour in the city of Estelí.
According to the local press, immigration authorities prevented Celebertti and her daughter Luciana from entering the country on 22 November, after they attended Palacios’s coronation and accompanied her on a short trip to Mexico.
Later it was announced that the police raided Celebertti’s home in the south-west of Managua and arrested her husband, Martín Argüello, and their son, Bernardo.
Without confirming the arrest, the authorities accused the three members of the Argüello Celebertti family on 2 December of treason, conspiracy and “organized crime”.
A statement by the national police claimed Celebertti “participated actively, on the internet and in the streets in the terrorist actions of a failed coup”, an apparent reference to the 2018 protests.
In her statement on Monday, Celebertti said that she worked for 23 years “with zeal and effort” until Nicaragua won the world beauty crown this year, which she described “as an achievement for everyone” and “for every Nicaraguan, without political distinction”.
Palacios has not been back to Nicaragua since her win, although she told a reporter last week that she was preparing to return home.
