The director of Miss Universe Panama (Señorita Panamá), César Anel Rodríguez, is involved in another scandal. This time, an alleged audio was leaked in which the Panamanian gives guidance to his catering director so that the current Miss Universe 2023, Sheynnis Palacios, is not allowed to eat “nacatamales” during her visit to the Canal country last August.
«What Sheynnis is not going to do is eat anything, if anything she will try a little piece of something. “She can’t eat nacatamales or anything like that, because ‘here between you and me’, she’s like 40 pounds heavier and Miss Universe is taking care of her,” is heard in the audio that was leaked by the event’s catering director in Panama City.
Apparently the audio was recorded in August when Sheynnis Palacios arrived in Panama as part of the Miss Universe agenda. Palacios was in charge of crowning the new Miss Panama 2024, Italy Mora, who recently also found herself in the middle of controversy when she was expelled from the pageant and days later removed from the crown.
According to the beauty portal MissologyKing, the director of Miss Panama asked the Nicaraguan diaspora living in Panama to organize a lunch with the promise that Sheynnis Palacios would attend said event; However, it was not like that, the Rodríguez team attended the diaspora meal, but the beauty queen never arrived.
Related news: Sheynnis Palacios compiles the best moments of her reign in Miss Universe in a video
Another issue that tainted the beauty’s visit to Panama with scandal was the prohibition on Palacios from touching on political topics during her press conference upon her arrival in the country. Palacios had already responded to questions from journalists in the Dominican Republic that she was not in exile and that she had not been denied entry to Nicaragua, so Rodríguez asked the organization to avoid these issues.
Hours after the leak of said audio, the Nicaraguan beauty published a post on Facebook showing off a toned and healthy body as a result of her discipline with sports.
Rodríguez was already in the eye of the scandal days ago after the expulsion of Miss Panama 2024 from the international beauty pageant. Mora affirms that the fault of her expulsion lies with the director of the national pageant for not supporting her financially within the event, so her boyfriend had to cover the expenses of the representative within the Miss Universe concentration in Mexico.
