Puerto Rico has decided not to take part in this year’s Miss International contest scheduled to take place in Japan on 14th November, 2017 due to two mighty hurricanes, Irma and Maria, which hit the island nation last month causing severe damages.
Earlier Puerto Rico withdrew from Miss World pageant as well due to the unfortunate incident that heavily ravaged the country.
Beverly Rodriguez De Leon, the reigning Miss International Puerto Rico 2017 shared a message to announce her resignation.
“We are a result of constant changes, challenges, evidence and situations that face our lives. Every day we wake up to do the best and achieve what we have mapped out but many times life has other surprises, other paths unknown to you. After months of work and preparation, I was already in the final stage to go for Miss International 2017. But Puerto Rico received the scourge of Maria which brought many sufferings for my island and every Puerto Ricans. It is my greatest longing at this time to be able to bring a little joy to my homeland by representing it internationally, but life decided it is not the time for me to fly. To all my Puerto Ricans, today I tell you that the best is yet to come and get us out of this. Together we will make a better Puerto Rico and I assure that I will be representing another time, which is sure.”
We will surely miss Beverly in the Miss International 2017 contest, as she was one of the front-runners to win and we do hope to see her back again next year competing in an international pageant.