Miss Paraguay
Miss Paraguay is a national beauty pageant in Paraguay established in 1915. It currently selects Paraguay's representatives for the Miss Intercontinental and Reinado Internacional del Café pageants.
The current Miss Paraguay is Milagros Aramí Walther of Alto Paraná who was crowned on September 23, 2023 at the Centro Paraguayo Japonés in Asunción, Paraguay.
History
In 1915, Arsenio López Decoud, president of the Unión Club, organized the first beauty pageant in Paraguay. It was held sometime during the spring at the National Theater and the winner was 19 years old María Anselma Clotilde "Anselmita" Heyn Denis. The pageant was revived in 1957 by the dictator Alfredo Stroessner and the Secretary of Tourism of Paraguay.In 1970, the contest was organized by Dinam Publicidad and took place in the Presidential Hall of the Hotel Guaraní.
Then in 1990, Guillermo Rolón and the Sistema [Nacional de Televisión (Paraguay)|SNT] took over Miss Paraguay until 2001. The organization stopped sending representatives to Miss Universe until 2001, with Paraguay absent in 2002 and 2003. The pageant was not held in 1959, 1968, 1969, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
In March 2017, the pageant was declared of cultural interest by the Chamber of Deputies of Paraguay.
In July 2020, it was reported that the coronation night scheduled to take place on August 14 was canceled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021 the contest was canceled for the same reason. In July 2022, the death of the organization's president, Guillermo Rolón, was reported and the pageant did not take place that year either. Since the death of Rolón, his widow, Graciela Venialgo, has taken charge of the organization.