By Toby Muse, Special for USA TODAY
BOGOTA, Colombia — This year's version of Colombia's least glamorous beauty pageant pitted a drug smuggler against a robber and a Marxist guerrilla.
The winner, from Cellblock No. 4, was Yury Uribe, currently serving five years at Good Shepherd Prison after she was arrested trying to board a plane with half a kilo of heroin in her stomach. She wore a jeweled top and slit skirt in the prison pageant.
Beauty and competitive pageants are national obsessions in Colombia. Annual telecasts of the Miss World and Miss Universe competitions draw ratings on par with World Cup soccer matches. They typically feature beauty experts who discuss the candidates' attributes and handicap the chances of Miss Colombia.
Yet even by Colombian standards, the competition at the country's largest female prison is unusual. It takes place each September in honor of the Virgin of Mercedes, patron saint of prisoners. Inmates see it as welcome relief from the boredom and loneliness of life behind bars.
"We can forget our problems for one day and just enjoy the party," says contestant Amarli Perez, 24, who is accused of trying to assassinate Colombia's president in a bombing that left 15 dead.
In the pageant, Perez represented her fellow Marxist guerrillas from Cellblock No. 6. She wore a revealing swimsuit-and-peacock-tail combination to impress the judges but wasn't one of the two finalists.
Salsa and reggaeton music filled the air as dozens of Good Shepherd inmates marched in processions that led the contestants from their cells to a stage in the prison courtyard. Each procession had a theme: The women from Uribe's cellblock dressed as ancient Egyptians; rivals from another block dressed as angels.
One finalist, Heidy Leon, 20, was joined in the procession by her mother, Diana, 34, also a Good Shepherd inmate. Both are serving 16 months for armed robbery and await trial on other charges, including assaulting police officers.
"The police say I shot at them resisting arrest, but this is not true. It was the police who shot me," Heidy Leon said during a break in the competition. Wearing a sparkling tiara and white evening gown, she held up her left hand to show the entry and exit wounds left from the bullet that struck her.
In addition to showing off their looks, the competitors answered questions for the judges — mostly popular Colombian singers and soap opera stars who agreed to pick the prison beauty queen.
Questions to the contestants dealt with prison life: how it could be improved and what the contestants hoped to do once they regained their freedom. Most of Good Shepherd's 1,000 inmates attended, waving placards of support and clapping wildly for the beauties from their cellblocks.
Uribe, 20, was nervous before she took the stage but ultimately won. She accepted the crown from last year's winner, a convicted murderer.
She cradled a bouquet of flowers as photographers crowded around to snap her picture. "I'm so glad I won this for my cellblock and all those who supported me," she said.
