Apr 1, 2009 8:00 pm US/Pacific
Miss Universe Blog Post On 'Fun' Gitmo Disappears
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ―
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Newly crowned Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela smiles on July 14, 2008, the last day of the beauty pageant.
Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP/Getty Images
Miss Universe's blog posting about having fun at Guantanamo Bay has vanished from the pageant's Web site as embarrassed officials try to quash what they call a misunderstanding.
A flurry of critical commentary and news stories over the Venezuelan beauty queen's lighthearted post underscores that the military prison at Guantanamo remains a damaging symbol for the United States.
Dayana Mendoza's now-deleted late-March posting sounded like a note home from a spring breaker.
"We hung out with the guys from the East Coast and they showed us the boat inside and out, how they work and what they do, we took a ride around the land and it was a loooot of fun!" Mendoza wrote.
"The water in Guantanamo Bay is soooo beautiful!" she wrote at another point.
Those descriptions did not refer to the detention center for alleged terrorists, which occupies a sliver of the 45-square-mile base.
In a brief mention of the detainee camp, Mendoza said her group "saw the jails, where they shower, how they recreate themselves with movies, classes of art, books." She described the prison only as "very interesting."
In place of her posting Wednesday was a statement from Paula M. Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, who said Mendoza and Miss USA Crystle Stewart had gone to Guantanamo on a USO tour to boost the morale of U.S. troops.
Shugart said Mendoza, in her post about having a fun trip, was referring to "the hospitality she received while meeting the members of the U.S. military and their families."
Still, the affair angered some Venezuelans, who said Mendoza had harmed their country's image by speaking positively about Guantanamo, where 240 men remain locked up by the U.S.
The beauty queens weren't the first celebrities to go to the isolated U.S. Naval base in southeast Cuba. Country rocker Charlie Daniels was there in 2002, singing "The devil went down to Gitmo, he was looking for some Taliban" in front of cheering soldiers.
The Victoria's Secret models visited in December 2007, and participated in a Christmas parade. Portland rockers Everclear were there in 2008 and Art Alexakis, the band's leader, said "we had a great time."
Mendoza was crowned Miss Universe last year at a pageant in Nha Trang, Vietnam.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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