Miss Universe Sheynnis Palacios breaks down in tears after receiving the Nicaragua flag

Miss Universe Sheynnis Palacios had the kind of emotional homecoming she wanted in her home country of Nicaragua last weekend, tears included. However, that welcome came in the Philippines.

The Nicaraguan beauty queen, who could not return to her home country due to tensions between Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and the Organizers of Miss Nicaragua, was received in the Philippines by a large number of fans outside the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City. Palacios, who greeted fans atop a convertible decorated with flowers patterned after the Philippine flag, was in Manila for what the Miss Universe Philippines Organization called a “homecoming.”

The idea was to give Palacios the experience she couldn’t get in Nicaragua because she and her team weren’t allowed to return. At one point, a fan approached the Miss Universe winner with a flag of Nicaragua, at which point Palacios became visibly emotional and hugged the flag to her chest.

The moment was captured from multiple angles.

Palacios held the flag throughout the column.

And she seemed very proud and happy during the entire celebration, the “homecoming” she didn’t get after becoming the first winner of Miss Universe from Nicaragua.

Palacios’ victory was followed by a turbulent time in the Miss Nicaragua organization, when Karen Celebertti, the director of the Miss Nicaragua beauty pageant, was banned from entering the country along with Sheynnis Palacios. Celebertti later resigned. Ortega’s government has not accused anyone in particular, except Rosario Murillo, Ortega’s vice president and wife, who has been in power since 2007, suggesting that the problems were due to attempts to “capture a beautiful and well-deserved moment of pride and celebration in a destructive coup.”