This year brought a devilishly sweet victory for Venezuela in the world of pageantry as they have accomplished a 666 victory from the three oldest and well-known beauty pageants in the world.

Ivian Sarcos who won the recently concluded Miss World beauty pageant in London was the country’s sixth win from the oldest pageant in the world. They had their first win back in 1955 when Susana Duijm became the first Venezuelan to win the title. It was followed by Pilin Leon after 26 years in 1981, the same year the country won the Miss Universe title by Irene Sáez who is also known for running the 1998 Presidency of her country.

Two years after this double victory, Astrid Carolina Herrera Irrazabal clinched the title back. In a period of five years from 1991-1995, two Venezuelans were crowned Miss World as Ninibeth Beatriz Leal Jiménez and Jacqueline Aguilera bagged the title in the 1991 and 1995 edition respectively. The country waited for 15 years to get their sixth title in which the 19-year old Ivian Sarcos successfully snagged from 112 other delegates!

At the Miss Universe pageant, who could forget the historical back-to-back win of the country in 2008 and 2009 when Dayana Mendoza crowned her fellow Venezuelan Stefania Fernandez in Bahamas.

It was in 1979 though, when the country got their first win when 18-year old Maritza Sayalero was crowned Miss Universe in Australia. Moreover, just after a year gap, Irene Saez won the crown followed by Bárbara Palacios Teyde in 1986 who won the title in Panama. In 1996 Alicia Machado dominated the pageant in Las Vegas. And then the historical back-to-back win happened that gave them their fifth and sixth win making them second winningest country in the pageant just after the United States with seven wins.

In Miss International, they held the true power as they have the most wins by far having successfully fielded six wins since 1985, a good 25 years since the pageant was created in Long Beach, California. It was Alejandrina “Nina” Sicilia Hernandez who bagged the first title for the country in the fall of 1985. After over a decade, Consuelo Adler brought the crown back to Venezuela.

The dawn of the new millennium was a good showing for the country in this pageant as they bagged four wins in its first decade. Vivian Urdaneta won the crown in 2000 followed by Goizeder Azúa in 2003. They got the crown back in 2006 proudly worn by Daniela Di Giacomo and just last year, Elizabeth Mosquera became the sixth winner of the top prize besting out 69 other candidates – the biggest turn out in the history of the competition.

Some of you may believe in 666 as the Number Of The Beast, I however don’t want to imply any negativity about these numbers in relation to these women. I merely want to express my admiration for these women who have achieved great feats in these three pageants that simply imply that they are the beast when it comes to the world of beauty pageantry!

Viva Venezuela!