Following the abrupt departure of Osmel Sousa from his position as President the Miss Venezuela Organisation, the organisation appears to have lost its course.
A scandal, involving former contestants and winners and their sexual favours erupted.
Then it was announced that a committee, rather than a person, would be placed in charge of the most renowned, and maligned, national pageant organisation in the world. Before that committee could even hold its first press conference, it was fired.
After that came the news that a new Executive Committee for the Miss Venezuela Organisation had been appointed consisting of three former international titleholders, one for each of the three major international beauty pageants. Former Miss International, Nina Sicilia, former Miss World, Jacqueline Aguilera, and former Miss Universe, Gabriela Isler, would take the reigns, each with a specific area of responsibility.
In the mean time there had been radio silence about and from the three winners of 2017, all supposedly preparing to compete in 2018.
This all changed with the appearance of some very nice photos of Sthefany Gutierrez, Miss Venezuela at Miss Universe 2018. Image Director Jacqueline Aguilera was quick to point out that those were not official pictures and were made without the permission of the organisation. The Image Director may have been well in her right to admonish the beauty queen, but that should have taken place behind close doors and not as the first social media interaction between the organisation and its wards.
Furthermore, those were the last great pictures of Sthefany. Subsequent “official” pictures, sanctioned most probably by the Image Director, have not been up to the usual Miss Venezuela standards and not even of the same quality as the unauthorised images. Truth be told, lifestyle images on Instagram are of better quality that anything sanctioned by the Three Divas Executive Committee (“TDEC”).
The faux pas’ of the TDEC did not end there though. Now comes the Veruska Debacle. When Veruska Ljubisavljevic was crowned Miss Venezuela World last year, it was a public secret that she had aged out of competing in 2018. Nevertheless she continued with her preparations and was actually the only one of last year’s queens to get a hair and make-up make-over. So it was assumed that the age issue had been dealt with, with Mrs. Julia Morley.
One day before the presentation of the contestants for the 2018 Miss Venezuela pageant, Veruska issued a statement on social media stating that she would be competing in Miss World 2018, odd for someone whose participation had not been formally put in doubt.
The next day the TDEC announced that the new Miss Venezuela, to be selected on September 12, would only be competing in Miss World 2018. Miss Venezuela Universe and Miss Venezuela International 2017 will compete in the 2018 editions of their international pageants, but not Veruska.
The reason? Supposedly, Mrs. Julia Morley who has once again demanded a separately selected winner and also one selected in the year of the international competition. Oddly enough, Venezuela seems to be the only country subjected to these harsh rulings of Mrs. Morley.
Aruba, Bolivia, Panamá and South Africa, are a few of the countries who select their representatives to Miss Universe and Miss World in one national pageant, albeit all in the year of the international competition. France selects its representatives in one contest in December of each to compete internationally the next year.
We still believe that the real reason is Veruska’s age, which the organisation failed to deal with properly. In any case, throwing Veruska to the curb like the TDEX has done is another misstep in what is becoming a long line of missteps.
To top it off, considering that the Miss Venezuela pageant does not take into account the selection criteria of Miss World, we predict another lacklustre run for the new Miss Venezuela 2018 at Miss World 2018.
MISS FRANCE
The Pageant Consultancy 