Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was at
times referred to as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British
Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize. Honduras was home to
several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya, prior to being conquered
by Spain in the sixteenth century. Once
part of Spain's vast empire in the New World, Honduras became an independent
nation in 1821. After two and a half decades of mostly military rule, a freely
elected civilian government came to power in 1982. The country is in news – for wrong reasons.
The Miss World pageant is
the oldest surviving major international beauty pageant, created in the United
Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. The winner spends a year travelling to represent
the Miss World Organisation and its various causes. The current Miss World is
Megan Young of the Philippines who was crowned on September 28, 2013 in Bali,
Indonesia. Traditionally Miss World lives in London during her reign.
This post is
about the girl who would have flown to London to compete in the Miss World
pageant the high point of her reign as Miss Honduras. Sadly, it is not to
happen - the beauty queen and her sister were found shot dead on a remote river
bank, and police said the sister’s boyfriend confessed to killing them in a
jealous rage over his girlfriend dancing with another man. Bodies believed to
be 19-year-old Maria Jose Alvarado and her 23-year-old sister, Sofia, were
discovered buried near the spa where they disappeared a week earlier while
celebrating the boyfriend’s birthday. At some point during the
night of November 13, 2014, a heated argument broke out and Plutarco Ruiz
pulled a gun, firing first at his girlfriend and then at Alvarado as she tried
to flee, said National Police director, Gen. Ramon Sabillon. Alvarado was hit
twice in the back. Alvarado was to have
boarded a flight to London to compete in the Miss World pageant, the winner of
which will be crowned on December 14.
The sisters’ mother, Teresa
Munoz, told Televicentro that her daughters were trusting and naive. “They
were not very astute about assessing the people around them. They were just
friendly,” Ms. Munoz said. “They were going out with people they hadn’t known
very long.” In connection to crime, Ruiz’s
brother reportedly had met a violent
end, gunned down in a restaurant in San Pedro Sula in February by men carrying
AK47s.
The shooting deaths of
Alvarado and her sister highlight what experts call an alarming trend of
violence against women in Central America, fuelled by poverty, domestic
violence, street gangs, drug trafficking and a culture of chauvinism. According
to a report by the United Nations, murders of women and girls in Honduras
increased by 263 per cent between 2005 and 2013. The country has the highest
murder rate in the world for a country not at war, with an estimated 90 to 95
killings per 100,000 people. An official is quoted as saying that a lot of
girls die this way, but because they’re not famous, it doesn’t get the
attention and the crimes go unpunished.
Beauty pageants are popular
in Latin America, where the winners are viewed as celebrities and often go on
to become entertainers. The winner of this year Maria Jose Alvarado has died
without ever getting a chance to further her reputation.
Koyal Rana, an Indian model
was crowned Femina Miss India 2014 beauty pageant and will represent India in
Miss World 2014 which is to be held in
London.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
20th Nov. 2014.
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