MGI 2019: how hypocrit is it to criticize MGI being held in Venezuela? We invite you to read this.

MGI 2019 candidates distributed free tickets and got close to the local people of Caracas, who welcomed them with joy.

When MGI organizers announced that this year´s pageant would be hosted by Venezuela, pageant followers all around the globe reacted with disbelief and rage. This included us. People thought: is that right? Will it actually happen? Does it mean MGI is supporting Venezuela´s government? Will they be able to pull it?

Countries such as England, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, and New Zealand, withdrew. South Korea was asked by its federal government not to be part of it.

If in 2018, 75 delegates competed for this same Grand Slam title in Myanmar, in Venezuela, only 60 nations and territories have joined.

Those who made it to Caracas, don´t regret it: they feel safe, public acceptance is high, and the pageant has brought joy to the local population. Organizers have never made it “political”. The idea, Mr. Nawat Itsaragrisil have made clear, was to celebrate Venezuela and its people, purely.

As a matter of fact, instead of profiting with the pageant, as it is natural to happen when these events have a “host country”, most of the money invested in this year´s edition, is coming from the MGI organization.

Tickets for the pageant´s final, preliminaries and national costume parade, have been distributed for free to thousands of people in Caracas.

And now we dare to go further and wonder:

The same people who criticizes MGI so much for having it in Venezuela, were “OK” with Miss Universe being hosted by Greece (1973), the Philippines (1974), El Salvador (1975), Dominican Republic (1977), South Korea (1980), Peru (1982), Panama (1986), just to name a few, countries living by the time, under heavy dictatorships, where death for thinking different was “commonplace”?

Why is that? Because the United States supported them and it does not support the current Venezuelan political regime?

While El Salvador, living under a heavy dictatorship supported by the USA, hosted the Miss Universe pageant in 1975…

… hundreds of students were killed in the streets of San Salvador for protesting agains the lack of basic human rights in the country.

How many people know that El Salvador, back in 1975, spent loads of money to welcome the Miss Universe pageant, showing to the world a “happy land and perfect tourist destination”, when in the same month of July, the pageant was held simultaneously to hundreds of students, in protest for human rights, being killed, disappearing or being hurt by the military?

When the Philippines hosted Miss Universe 1974, it was ruled by Ferdinand Marcos, a leading member of the far-right New Society Movement, who ruled the country as a dictator under martial law. His wife, Imelda Marcos, was part of it.

Imelda Marcos, believed to have illegally amassed a multi-billion US dollar personal fortune, the bulk of which still remains unrecovered, with the winner and finalists of Miss Universe 1974, hosted by the Philippines. She and her husband played a big role in that year´s Miss U edition.

In 1980, when South Korea hosted Miss Universe and Miss USA won the title, weeks before the candidates arrived in the country (including the 50 delegates who had competed in Miss USA 1980, all financed by the local government), the famous Coup d'état of May Seventeenth took place, when General Chun Doo-hwan forced the Cabinet to extend martial law to the whole nation.

A few days later, up to 165 people were killed when a popular uprising in the city of Gwangju was crushed by the South Korean army.

In the words of journalist Ricardo Guiraldes, all this after almost ending up in Pinochet´s Chile that year. Negotiations didn´t conclude, though.

And we are looking just at the “tip of the iceberg”… Do a little research and you will find much more.

The Venezuelan situation is very complex. If there´s a shortage of mostly everything in this country, partly, it is because the USA cannot get all the oil it wishes from it, as it happened in the past. Americans cannot swallow the fact that Venezuela got closer to Russia, Iran, China, among other countries. So the US puts all its efforts to shut Venezuela from the rest of the world. Regardless of your political point of view, is it fair?

The Miss Grand International pageant is clearly not in favor of or against the Venezuelan political system. It respects the country as it is, showing to the rest of the world that it still exists and is made up of (and by) millions of amazing and welcoming people. It gave Venezuela, the nation which has produced most Grand Slam winners, the chance to host a Grand Slam competition for the first time EVER. And it did it not for the money, or for political reasons, as others did in the past.

The bottom line is: events such as beauty pageants and politics, should not get mixed. They are aimed to promote goodwill and ideals of peace among nations, which not always has been the case.

We take our hats off to the MGI organization for a job well done, and are glad to support and be part of this historic event. Let the show continue…