Festivals

Latin America is renowned for its festivals and parties. Although Rio's Carnival is the most famous, carnival celebrations are held in most Latin American countries.

Bolivians in particular are fond of singing and dancing and take great pride in their festival costumes, which include women in ornate petticoats and distinctive bowler hats. As well as the chaos of carnival, there are innumerable street parades in honor of different saints or to commemorate important historical events.

Venezuela also holds a traditional carnival celebration in the small city of Carupano. The floats are occupied by beauty queens of all ages - including lots of drag queens. Beauty pageants are a big deal in Venezuela and Venezuelan contestants usually rank highly in the Miss Universe and Miss World contests.
When currency restrictions meant the reigning Miss Venezuela would be unable to attend the 2003 Miss Universe pageant in Panama, the President of Panama personally intervened to ensure Miss Venezuela attended.
A former Venezuelan Miss Universe even ran for the presidency in 1999. After her attempt failed, she went on to win a regional election and became a state governor. In 2003 a former Miss Venezuela was carjacked and when the carjackers realised who she was, they got her to autograph copies of her calendar for them.

But not all parties are popular in Venezuela. In 2005, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's controversial president, urged Venezuelans not to celebrate Halloween. He described it as a "game of terror" and cited it as another example of the United States "putting fear into other nations".