Erika Rodríguez, 23, filed a lawsuit for alleged fraud against the organization that sold her the title that gave her the right to compete internationally in an adolescent competition.
Last Wednesday, Erika Rodríguez, Miss Teenager El Salvador surprised her Instagram followers by publishing a live video to inform them that in recent days she has said Salvadoran Rosa Blanca Navarrete de Parras and Daniela Parras, national organizers of beauty pageant, and the Guatemalan Tony Berganza, CEO of Miss Teenager International, for alleged fraud.
The Salvadoran beauty took advantage of the publication to demand that the defendants return the money she had paid for the national title, which gave her the right to represent El Salvador in the international competition.
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The audiovisual video has drawn attention not only because of the details Erika provides regarding the alleged fraud she is alleged to have been the subject of, but also because she revealed that she was accepted into the competition despite being 22 years old at the time. was and that she later bought the local “crown”. It should be noted that Miss Teenager El Salvador and Miss Teenager Internacional are two competitions, supposedly for teens between 14 and 19 years old.
Erika, second from left to right, is said to have been admitted to Miss Teenager El Salvador’s beauty pageant. Instagram photo @missteenagersv
According to Rodríguez, at the time of casting on December 21, 2019, the organizers of the national competition They already knew that she was over the age limit and that they still admitted her participation, provided she did not say how old she was or how many years she had been in college.
“I was very surprised and said to them, ‘this is very risky, the only thing I don’t want is problems’ ”Erika expresses just over 46 minutes in the clip.
The young woman confirms that after checking in with other girls, she attended only two face-to-face meetings due to the quarantine and the other sessions were held virtually. He also claims that one “unexpected” day he received a call from Daniela Parras, who was linked to Tony Bergara and Blanca de Parras, telling him they were looking at her. “The opportunity to purchase the Miss Teenager crown valued at $ 3,500”. With that title, she was able to represent the country in Miss Teenager International, to be held in Mexico.
“Like a very careful girl, I said to them: ‘what they are doing is very risky, it is not being done by the other countries’, what they ‘said’: ‘the other countries have done it as a result of the pandemic.’ I felt more comfortable and confident, but I didn’t know she was lying to me “Erika says.
The model also states that she eventually accepted the proposal, as Berganza assured her that other countries had done the same.
Rodríguez revealed that he bought the title that gave him the right to compete in Miss Teenager International. Photo Instagram @ erika_rodriguez_503
Rodríguez assures that they offered him the national title for $ 3,500, but after asking for a rebate, they left it for $ 2,000 on the condition that he should send $ 710 to Berganza and $ 290 to Daniela Parras should transfer. The rest of the money would be canceled weeks before the international match, which takes place February 27 in Chiapas, Mexico.
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Erika claims that after paying what was previously established, Daniela Parras assured her that she would teach etiquette, self-makeup, and public speaking classes, but she claims those courses were never offered.
The young woman also denounced that the organizers of the national competition disassociated themselves from all procedures from her in order to travel to Mexico and that they had informed her that all costs (costs of the visa, transit, clothing …) would be for her own account. come.
“Me, in order not to make this long, I said to him, ‘Well it’s okay, I’ll put it (the money). I didn’t want any problems, I didn’t want to make the problem worse “, holds the beauty queen.
The former beauty queen claims she gave money to the organizers of the beauty pageants. Photo Instagram @ erika_rodriguez_503
But the surprises didn’t stop there. In the video, Erika makes a revelation that has surprised many. The young woman, who is currently 23 years old and studying Medicine for the sixth year, confirms that she contacted Guatemalan Tony Berganza on October 18, 2020 to ask if “ there would be any discomfort if (she) got married ” before participating to the event. internationally in Chiapas. And, according to the young woman, before she ‘entered’ the national competition, she had already planned her wedding for October 2020.
“My wedding was in October and I participated in this Miss Teenager event in December (2019). The truth is that this year (2020) was bad, the pandemic started, but I had set my date, it would be in October. As a result of the pandemic, all this disrupted my marriage, of course I couldn’t say no, I couldn’t say ‘I’m not getting married’ because my marriage was already there. Anyway, we invited a lot of people and I couldn’t say no and wait another year “, he claimed.
According to Erika, when he informed Berganza of his wedding plans, he replied that there was no problem with his participation in Miss Teenager International, that he had already discussed it with his partners. The young woman claims that the event director accepted her participation despite her marriage, but made a condition for her: that she would not upload photos of her wedding on social networks.
The fitness trainer also expresses himself in the video that she complied with the request, but that a month after reaching that agreement, Berganza expelled her from the group of international queens who would participate in Chiapas.
I asked him why. He told me he could not travel to Mexico because he violated internal rules. It was so hard for me when he told me himself that there would be no problems if I got married “says Rodríguez.
The Guatemalan Tony Berganza is said to have been charged by Erika. Instagram photo @toniberganzaofi
After all these irregularities, Erika now demands that all the money she has invested be returned to her.
“I only demand my money back. Now I really understood that being a queen doesn’t just mean wearing a crown, but moving on. Which doesn’t really matter to me right now, owning a crown. “, expresses.
Rodríguez states that he met with Rosa Blanca de Parras on November 12 to personally reveal her situation. She assures that at that meeting De Parras promised to return the money she gave him for Christmas, but she claims she has not received anything to date.
In the audiovisual episode, Erika exposes the recording of her husband’s telephone conversation with Rosa Blanca, where he asks her to repay the money. She agrees to refund an amount on the condition that the young woman returns the crown and sash, worth $ 300 and $ 100, respectively. It should be noted that at the beginning of the live video, the former sovereign appears wearing the tiara and the band.
Erika informed her Instagram followers that, given Rosa Blanca’s refusal to return her money, she decided to charge her “and her accomplices” for defrauding.
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The live video was used by the young woman to expose the photos with the faces of her alleged scammers. Among the images, one stands out in which a son (minor) of the Parras family appears. These photos were also shared in another Instagram post from Érika. In this publication, a user informed the former beauty queen that he committed a possible crime by publishing the face of a minor. When she made such a point, the young woman deleted that image and deleted the comments from that post.
Erika’s Instagram live also featured the testimony of Keren Guevara, another Salvadoran beauty queen who also claims to have been defrauded by the organizers of the national pageant.
Rodríguez hopes to win the lawsuit. Instagram photo @missteenagersv
Given Erika’s allegations, the organization Miss Teenager El Salvador has issued the following statement (sic) through its Facebook page.
“We inform the public that Ms. Erika Rodríguez, who was Mis Teenager El Salvador 2020 at the time, and who, according to the contract between her and the director of Mis Teenager El Salvador, Ms. Blanca de Parras, Erika promised the rules at the time. or to respect obligations of a beauty pageant for young ladies, who are not allowed to be married, united or have children, and so she was removed from her title and reigned. By firing her, she loses all her rights to the regime and continues to pay for her expenses in the Miss Teenager 2020 international event in recovery from the damage done to the El Salvador organization and the international organization. Sincerely, Org. Miss Teenager El Salvador “.
Tony Berganza, in turn, has not commented on the matter.