Swimsuit Competition Miss Colombia Pageant 2008 Part 01/03

Miss Colombia is officially known as the Concurso Nacional de Belleza de Colombia, (National Beauty Contest.) It is the most significant pageant in a country that, like neighboring Venezuela, gives incredible weight to beauty contests. The Miss Colombia pageant elects representatives to Miss Universe and Miss International. The Miss Mundo Colombia pageant is a separate and smaller event that sends Colombia's representative to Miss World. The Miss Earth Colombia pageant is a separate yet sizable country-wide search for Colombia's representative to Miss Earth.
The Miss Colombia pageant is one of the most important cultural events in the country, held annually in the city of Cartagena de Indias. Massive coverage is given by the media to the contest, including by Cromos magazine which devotes entire issues to the individual contestants favored to win, and four covers of the magazine are devoted to the pageant in a 4-week period.
Additionally, every major network sends news crews, and even have special sets built by the beach in Cartagena to report live for at least fifteen minutes every day towards the end of the news broadcast on the goings-on of the contestants. Aspirants must compete in their respective Departments (about twenty of which are represented each year, fluctuating due to the continuing civil unrest in the country) to earn a title for the pageant.

Colombia has the strictest rules regarding participation of any Miss Universe preliminary: once a contestant registers for the pageant, she is confined to her own Department and cannot jump states/provinces as happens frequently elsewhere. However, she can participate more than once for the same department; the winner of the pageant in 2003 had already come in fourth place at the Miss Valle pageant the year before she won and eventually went on to win the national crown.
Perhaps this rule is the reason for the intense rivalries that have developed between departments (states) to win the most crowns, a couple of them have garnered a significant number, starting with Atlántico (9), Valle (8), Santander (7), Antioquia (6).