Our reigning Miss Universe is from Venezuela. Her name is Dayana Mendoza, and she’s all of 22-years-old. Since being crowned Miss Universe, Dayana has visited Indonesia, Spain, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico for official “Miss Universe” related visits. So what is the place every Miss Universe has on their itinerary? Guantanamo Bay, of course!
Dayana was invited to visit the the detention center as “a morale-boosting visit to US military personnel”, and she just had the best time. Dayana writes on her travel blog that Gitmo is “soooo beautiful” and “it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful.” Oh. My. God. The Telegraph has more:
Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza, 22, has described controversial detention centre Guantánamo Bay as a “relaxing, calm, beautiful place” in her travel blog in apparent disregard to torture claims.
The Venezuelan beauty queen said the waters surrounding the facility, at the centre of allegations of human rights abuses, are “soooo beautiful”. Her experiences do not echo those of former detainees at the United States centre who are alleged to suffer practices such as ‘waterboarding’ in which water is poured over inmates faces during interrogation.
Britain announced last week it would investigate whether its secret services were complicit in the torture of UK resident Binyam Mohamed released from the camp last month.
Miss Mendoza wrote her effusive blog, apparently troubled by concerns over the treatment detainees, following a morale-boosting visit to US military personnel at the facility, on Cuba. After being crowned Miss Universe last summer, she has visited Indonesia, Spain, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico. “This week, Guantánamo!!!” she announced on her blog.
“I didn’t want to leave, it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful,” she wrote. “The first thing we did was attend a big lunch and then we visited one of the bars they have in the base. We talked about Gitmo and what it was like living there.”
Other highlights included meeting the military dogs – who “did a very nice demonstration of their skills” – and a tour of the detainee camps. “We saw the jails, where they shower, how they recreate themselves with movies, classes of art, books,” she said. “It was very interesting.”
She added: “The water… is soooo beautiful! We went to the glass beach, and realised the name of it comes from the little pieces of broken glass from hundreds of years ago. It is pretty to see all the colours shining with the sun.”
Miss Mendoza disclosed she had even bought a souvenir of her visit – “a necklace… that will remind me of Guantánamo Bay.”
The US took possession of the south-eastern corner of the island under a lease established after the 1898 Spanish-American War, and later agreed to rent the land in perpetuity for an annual fee. However, since 1960, Cuba’s government has refused to cash the cheques.
From The Telegraph
What’s worse, in my mind, is that the American government had to give permission for Miss Universe to visit. This was someone’s bright idea, probably to “soften” the image of the detention center. Even though President Obama announced that Gitmo would be closed within a year (hopefully, but he left room to change the date certain), many watchdog groups like Amnesty International and the International Red Cross still have problems gaining entrance to Gitmo to review the facilities and conditions. So Miss Universe gets in, but not the Red Cross. What an astoundingly bad media strategy.
Note by Celebitchy: The NY Times notes that this glowing blog piece was deleted. The Miss Universe organization issued a statement that “Dayana Mendoza’s comments on her blog were in reference to the hospitality she received while meeting the members of the U.S. military and their families who are stationed in Guantánamo.”
Photo credit: WENN.com
I was hoping someone had asked her what she thought of Guantanamo Bay and she got it confused with someplace else, damnit.
Girl clearly does not have two brain cells to rub together does she?
Well, she can always fall back on her beauty for a couple more years. LOL
There are too many loonies in Hollywood and Democrats in Congress that wax poetic about the island prison known as Cuba. The healthcare (sure) and almost 100% literacy (even though there are only state approved books to read)-why pick on her? She beauty queen and that is offensive.
English isn’t her first language and don’t all Hollywood idiots say hide behind language issue when they are caught bad-mouthing America in foreign publications?
And if she believed a quarter of what agenda journalists have been reporting maybe she was expected a concentration camp and didn’t see one. She saw halal meals ( I wonder if Danny Pearl was offered a Kosher meal- he wasn’t a practicing jew but he was killed because he was one and, of course, American.
My family is from Gitmo; it is a beautiful place.
“Democrats in congress that wax poetic about the island”
Do you have any idea what you’re even talking about? Because that statement would suggest otherwise.
HEB: I was hoping for the same thing.
This is why pretty people should NEVER think OR talk. Just stand there remember your lines and look pretty. Leave the hard stuff to us “ugly” people.
Its better to be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@ Sauronsarmy : LOL. I tell my bf that when he says something stupid. “Just stand there and look pretty ok hunny? Remember who’s the brains of this operation?”
‘recreate themselves’.
And thus it was that the word ‘recreation’ was turned into a verb by the one they call Miss Universe.
‘What ya doing this weekend Bob?’
‘I’m going to the golf course – need some recreating’.
This chick wouldn’t know a prison camp if it smacked her in that pretty little mouth. I’m sure Guantanamo is a beautiful place but surely someone should have told her she wasn’t there to admire the fauna and flora and the extensive range of jewellery available.
Being intelligent – you’re doing it wrong.
“Its better to be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt”
-Abraham Lincoln
this reminds me of that “the hills” spoof when the cast is surrounded by the apocolypse and they’re so clueless all they can talk about is their breakup and the next hot new night scene… cracked me up…
bittercup, I understand what it’s like to comment too quickly before taking time to collect and organize thoughts. I’ve done it myself. Better luck next time.
Hmm. Okay then. I think the point of her visit went straight over her head.
@Sauronsarmy – you might be ugly but you don’t sound very intelligent. if you were, you might realize that appearance has no correlation to IQ 😛
@ Trillion: tehehe. loveeee ittttt 😀
Also, those things dangling from her lower lashes look like they’re in the process of morphing into an independent life form.
I’m sure that anything other than moral outrage would anger you people…but Gitmo IS beautiful.
She was likely sent there for the same reason the USO sends people there. It has nothing to do with softening the image of the place and everything to do with lifting the morale of men who work in a place where they are demonized for doing their job. They are far away from their families guarding and living with some of the most evil people on the planet.
And when a person visits Gitmo, comments on the beauty of the surrounding landscape, and enjoys the company of the people who work there…you demonize her, too.
You’re clearly not interested in knowing what ACTUALLY goes on there. You readily and without question believe the people who tell you horror stories. Someone tells you it wasn’t horrific, and you balk.
And, btw, English is not her first language…and “recreate” is a verb. Look it up. She used it correctly. Maybe you should take a few classes and buy a dictionary before you start insulting people.
That girl looks like she’s had a bad nose job.
Wind your neck in Aspen.
Recreate is of course a verb – it’s means to renew.
If you READ what was said though was ‘how they recreate themselves with movies’.
One assumes she didn’t mean they RENEW themselves via the power of movies but actually meant how they spend their recreational time.
Snap.
I love how Aspen refers to us as “You people”.
Listen.
Atrocities occurred there, you can try and say what you want about “liberal media” or whatever else you’d like to spew, but the truth of the matter is, human rights were violated and for Miss Universe to go in and be so flippant about the whole place just shows that people are ignorant to the atrocities in our world. And that is sad.
Well said Annie.
Clearly Aspen is above us ignoramus types.
Gitmo is beautiful! Looks relaxing too. The prisoners eat better food than my kid does at school. And they take f£&@ink yoga and art classes and shit there.
I have a family membe. who worked there. I want to go there if iever get arrested!