Venezuela could be out of Miss Universe 2017?
There were recent (unconfirmed) reports by TVyNovelas magazine that Venezuela could be left out of the Miss Universe 2017 competition expected to be held in November, due to the recent political and economical situation that the country is going through.
The current Miss Venezuela is Keysi Sayago, who was crowned in October and is expected to compete in the next Miss Universe.
According to the magazine, the owners of the Miss Universe license in Venezuela (Organizacion Cisneros) has not been able to come up with the $80K franchise fee needed to participate in the competition. Last year due to the same situation, Venezuela was not present during the Mr. World event held in England.
The same story applied to Mariangel Ruiz back in 2003, when numerous reports about her cancelled participation made the international media. However everything was sorted out by the start of the Miss Universe pageant that year. She arrived one week late, and managed to place as 1st runner-up.
Keysi Sayago took the news with a grain of salt and even made fun of the situation, posting in Instagram that everything is under control and that she will indeed participate.
TVyNovelas magazine has published questionable rumours in the past, including that the whole court of Senorita Colombia 2017 had resigned to their titles, which eventually was proven to be false.