No Venezuela in Miss Universe Contest

Posted on Fri, May. 16, 2003 Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - For the first time in decades, the country that has won more major beauty pageants in recent years than any other won't be offering a candidate for Miss Universe.

The Miss Venezuela Organization said Friday that the country's strict foreign exchange controls, imposed amid a general strike earlier this year, have made it unable to obtain the dollars to send a candidate to the June 3 pageant in Panama.

"The decision not to send Miss Venezuela to this prestigious international contest came after we exhausted all our efforts to send our usual and always distinguished representative," the organization said in a statement on its Web site. "But the serious political and economic crisis Venezuela is going through has posed an obstacle insurmountable for the moment."

Miss Venezuela president Osmel Sousa said Tuesday that his organization needed $80,000 for the franchise fee to send Mariangel Ruiz, a tall, 23-year-old brunette, to Miss Universe. The organization has the funds in the local bolivar currency but is not able exchange them into dollars.

Edgar Hernandez, the president of the government agency in charge of authorizing dollar sales, said he was not aware that the organization had applied for the dollars.

Hernandez said he was looking into it and would consider granting the funds if the organization submitted an application.

Asked if an application had been submitted, officials at Miss Venezuela sponsor Venevision television declined to comment.

In the past 24 years, the Miss Venezuela Organization's contestants have won the three most important international beauty contests 12 times - more than any other country.

Venezuela has won four Miss Universe crowns, five Miss World crowns and three Miss International titles. The last time Venezuela didn't participate in Miss Universe was 1959.

In January, President Hugo Chavez's government imposed strict foreign exchange controls to stop panic dollar buying and protect its depleting international reserves amid a failed general strike to try to force his ouster.

The controls have prevented most private businesses from obtaining dollars. The government had granted $155 million since Jan. 21, compared with Venezuela's usual monthly demand of $1 billion.

---_ On the Net: www.missvenezuela.com