She has already spent $7,000 on a nose job and breast implants to achieve her dream of winning Miss Venezuela. But for Maya Nava, this was not enough. The 18-year-old has had plastic mesh sewn to her tongue so that eating solids is simply too painful. 'It makes me lose weight faster,' she tells the BBC3 show Extreme Beauty Queens: Secrets of South America. 'You eat the same [things] but liquefied.'Maya is one of thousands of young girls desperate to be crowned Miss Venezuela and their families will do virtually anything to make it happen.'My wish is to be recognised,' she reveals. 'I want people to know that people from the slums can succeed.'It would guarantee me and my family a future. It would allow us to leave the barrio.'Maya's determination to succeed is unsurprising. She lives in the Santa Cruz barrio in Caracas where there is a murder every 40 minutes.And with more Miss Worlds than any other country and a TV audience of 50 million for the final of the national competition, beauty pageants are big business in Venezuela.Winning the Miss Venezuela pageant can mean a starry showbiz career and a route out of poverty, and as a result, there's no lengths that Venezuelan girls won't go to to win the prize.Overseen by the country's 'King of Beauty', Osmel Sousa, 67, competitors spend the six months leading up to the final in a tough beauty bootcamp where feelings aren't spared, the cameras are always watching and surgery is routine.The Miss Venezuela House is run by the svengali-like Sousa, who is always on hand to check the progress of the girls - and dispense an unlimited supply of cutting advice.Competitors are thinned out at regular evictions judged by Sousa. Watching the women sashay down the runway, he uses his eagle eye for imperfections to spot areas for improvement.'The two central teeth!' he exclaims as one beauty walks towards him. Blushing, she replies: 'They filed them down yesterday.' 'File them down more!' is his response.Not everyone approves of the extensive surgery the contestants undergo. The mother of Lara, another competitor insists her daughter won't have surgery because it 'would not be a fair contest'.She adds: 'All this surgery... Is it a competition to see who is the best surgeon or who's the prettiest girl?'Back in the Miss Venezuela House, Sousa is once again thinning the ranks of hopefuls. 'Listen girl, let me tell you, that beehive hairdo looks horrendous!' he snaps at one.When a girl faints, he tells her: 'If you faint like a beauty queen, get up like one too!' Later, he quips: 'I'm checking for girls who've got fat and to see they act like it's the final. There are a few who aren't concentrating.'While Sousa, who has done more than any other to ensure Venezuela's continuing success in international beauty pageants, might seem offensive, he insists that it's really all about the transformation.'I am always working on that [what women can do],' he insists. 'When I was little, I had Attention Deficit Disorder. I couldn't study, I'd just forget everything so I drew beautiful women constantly.'What I love is seeing positive transformations,' he continues. 'Nature hasn't been kind to some women.'If a girl needs a nose job, you get her one. It's an industry so we strive for perfection. We can't settle for mediocrity.'Not every woman meets with his approval however, with feminist protesters among those in line for another dose of caustic Sousa wisdom.'Those organisations were created by ugly betties with no hope of a fix!' he insists. 'They're all horrendous! 'They [feminist protesters] are taking things out of context. We're not training astronauts here - we launch women's showbiz careers.'And for women like Maya, who eventually - to the delight of her Santa Cruz neighbours - comes second in the Miss Venezuela pageant, success can be a route out of poverty too.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az