Former Mexican beauty queen Lupita Jones confirmed...

Former Mexican beauty queen Lupita Jones confirmed her country's participation in the Miss World 2002 beauty pageant, to be held in Nigeria.
The pageant is scheduled to be held on [ December 7]despite an international boycott to protest the death sentence imposed by an Islamic court in the African nation on a woman who bore a child out of wedlock.
The only Mexican Miss Universe (1991) said that she respected the decisions of other countries to not participate in the pageant, but that the best protest was to use the venue to demand justice for Amina Lawal, who was condemned to death by stoning.
"I respect the decision of other countries, but I believe that they will listen to us more closely if we say things from the forum in the country where this is happening than if we refuse to attend," she said in statement published by the newspaper La Cronica.
"We can make good use of our voice and be heard by millions of people when we denounce the lack of respect for human rights," she added.
Jones said she hoped that the sentence would not be carried out and that Lawal would be allowed to care for her baby in peace.
"I trust that the sentence will not be executed and because of this, we must attend to exert pressure and prevent it," she said.
The Mexican representative to the pageant will be Blanca Zumarraga, a native of the state of Puebla and an architecture student.
Zumarraga was chosen in the beginning of September in a competition that Jones organized.