Miss Latin America 2003

Miss América Latina 2003 was the seventeenth international edition of the Miss América Latina contest, and the nineteenth overall. The final event was held on November 23, 2002 in Playa Tambor, Costa Rica. At the conclusion of the pageant, Maria Carolina Casado of Venezuela was crowned by outgoing titleholder, Claudia Cruz of the Dominican Republic^[1].

Results

Final Results	Contestant
Miss América Latina 2003	Venezuela - Maria Carolina Casado
1st runner-up	Colombia - Alejandra Zapata
2nd runner-up	Spain - Tania Ferreiro
Semi-finalists (in order of placement)	Chile - Nazhla Abad  Brazil - Gleice Machado  Puerto Rico - Karla Calzada  Mexico - Rocío Osuna

Contestants^[2]

Bolivia - Sharon Davies Rojas  Brazil - Gleice Machado  Canada - Florencia González  Chile - Nazhla Abad  Colombia - Alejandra Zapata  Costa Rica - Jennifer Barrantes  Curacao - Susell Morales  Ecuador - Laura Cruz  El Salvador - Aura Guzmán  Guatemala - Jackelinne Piccinini  Honduras - Kritza Pérez

Mexico - Rocío Osuna  Nicaragua - Reneé Fabiola Dávila  Panama - Ingrid González  Paraguay - Rosana Toillier  Peru - Fiorella Flores  Portugal - Vera Lucia Dolores  Puerto Rico - Karla Calzada  Spain - Tania Ferreiro  Uruguay - Lorena Verdesio  USA - Elynor Martínez  Venezuela - Maria Carolina Casado

National Notes

Debuts

•  Curaçao
•  Portugal

Returning territories

Last competed in 2000:  Ecuador

Last competed in 2001:  Panama  Paraguay  Uruguay

Withdraws

•  Argentina
•  Dominican Republic

Historical Significance

• Dominican Republic was oddly absent, having won in 2002. It was the first, and only, time that the outgoing titleholder's territory was not represented.
• Venezuela captured its third victory, tying for the most wins by a territory with Brazil (1994-95, 1998-99 and 2001) and the Dominican Republic (1985, 1986 and 2002). It is interesting to note all three territories earned their third wins in succession (2001-2003) and that all three were, up to that point, the only territories with more than one win.
• Colombia placed for the sixth consecutive pageant. This broke the record Colombia and Brazil had previously achieved in 1983-1987 and 1986-1991 respectively. This stands as the longest placement streak in the history of the pageant, later matched by Brazil in 2006 and Guatemala in 2011.
• Colombia also matched their highest placement up to that point for the fourth time. With four first runners-up, Colombia has the most second places in the pageant's history, later to be tied by the USA in 2009. Colombia would finally win in 2010.
• Spain achieved their highest placement since back-to-back first runners-up in 1992 and 1993.
• Brazil placed for the third consecutive time.
• Spain last placed in 1996.
• Mexico last placed in 1998.
• Puerto Rico last placed in 2000.
• Chile and Venezuela last placed in 2001.

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]