Venezuelan Crowned as Miss Universe
Smiling and waving to the crowd, a white-gowned Miss Venezuela, Alicia Machado, was crowned Miss Universe 1996 on Friday night, beating out 78 contestants from around the world.
She succeeds Chelsi Smith, a 22-year-old college student from Deer Park, Texas, who also won the Miss USA title last year.
This year’s Miss USA, Ali Landry, of Breaux Bridge, La., was one of the 10 finalists, along with Taryn Mansell of Aruba, Milena Mayorga of El Salvador, Lola Odusoga of Finland, Sandhya Chib of India, Vanessa Guzman of Mexico, Natali Sacco of Peru, Ilmira Shamsutdinova of Russia and Annika Duckmark of Sweden.
The international event took a diplomatic shot Tuesday when Indonesia’s minister for women’s affairs criticized the pageant, saying her nation’s dominant Muslim religion forbids public exposure of most parts of the body.
Alya Rohali, a 19-year-old student from Jakarta University, won the Miss Indonesia title in a competition that emphasized culture, education and intelligence, with contestants wearing long dresses but no swimsuits.
She did wear a swimsuit for the Miss Universe pageant and was unperturbed by the flap, said Wendy Schwartz, a pageant spokeswoman.
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