The winner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant has been embroiled in an alleged foreign-backed plot to overturn the country’s authoritarian government.

Sheynnis Palacios became the first Nicaraguan to win the Miss Universe competition last month, after winning a national contest earlier this year.

At first, president Daniel Ortega called Miss Palacios’ victory a moment of “legitimate joy and pride”.

But the celebrations turned sour after photos of the 23-year-old at mass anti-government protests in 2018 went viral on social media.

Authorities have charged Karen Celebertti, the director of the country’s national beauty pageant, with engineering a “foreign-backed plot” over Miss Palacios’ show of support for the pro-democracy demonstrations.

Ms Celebertti is wanted by police on conspiracy charges after allegedly rigging the competition and other beauty events to ensure anti-government contestants won.

Government forces killed more than 300 people five years ago as they crushed the three-month-long demonstrations against Mr Ortega’s administration, which authorities blamed on foreign interference.

Officials have since outlawed protests, but after Ms Palacios’ win in November, many defied the ban and took to the streets to celebrate.

Some carried the national blue and white flag, a symbol of protest and a jailable offence, instead of Mr Ortega’s red and black Sandinista banner.

Miss Palcios wore a white dress and blue cape during the Miss Universe ceremony, which some took to be a reference to the banned flag.

“In these days of a new victory, we are seeing the evil, terrorist commentators making a clumsy and insulting attempt to turn what should be a beautiful and well-deserved moment of pride into destructive coup-mongering,” said Mr Ortega’s wife and vice president Rosario Murillo.

Meanwhile, Ms Celebertti was banned from entering Nicaragua when she flew home after the Miss Universe pageant on Nov 23. She is reported to be in Mexico.

Her husband and son have been detained on conspiracy charges dating back five years after being arrested at their home in the capital Managua.

‘Traps and political ambushes financed by foreign agents’

Police said Ms Celebertti had used “spaces supposedly dedicated to promoting ‘innocent’ beauty pageants, in a conspiracy orchestrated to convert the contests into traps and political ambushes financed by foreign agents”.

The former beauty queen, who has run the Miss Nicaragua contest since 2001, was also charged with money laundering and spreading fake news.

Police claimed she had “actively participated” in organising anti-government protests, including those which gripped the Central American nation in 2018. They said she had remained in contact with “the traitors” since.

Ms Palacios, who won the Miss Nicaragua contest in August to earn the right to compete in Miss Universe, was not named in the police statement.

She has moved to New York for her Miss Universe duties and has not made any public comments about Nicaraguan politics.

But she has emphasised her Catholic faith at a time when Mr Ortega has cut off diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

Her old Facebook page, which showed photos of her at the protests, has been taken down.

Mr Ortega, a  78-year-old former Leftist revolutionary hero, has jailed opposition leaders, imprisoned Catholic clergy and cracked down on media freedoms during his presidency.

He won a fourth consecutive term in office in January last year, in a vote the United States branded a “pantomime election.”