enable them to compete in the final pageant. Venezuela's 23 states, capital district, islands and the Costa Oriental region of Zulia State are almost always represented; some years other regions of the country will have representatives in the pageant. Although some major states and regions such as Zulia, Táchira, Lara, Bolivar and Carabobo will hold their own preliminaries, many of the states are assigned by geographical proximity or even random drawing to the final contestants. There is therefore considerably less emphasis on state titles than there is in other national pageants such as Miss USA, although certain areas such as Miranda, Nueva Esparta, Capital District, Guarico, Vargas and Carabobo always seem to achieve high results. Osmel Sousa, former president of the pageant, always sat on the selection panel regardless of whether it was a final regional contest or the direct "auditions", and it was not uncommon for him to overturn the entire regional results in favor of his own choices. For example, none of the candidates in 2004 for Vargas state were deemed fit for competition, so a candidate from Caracas was appointed Miss Vargas. Winners therefore have often never visited the state they represent. In this fashion, rather than waste five or six candidates from a strong area of the country such as Zulia in a system wherein only one can represent the state, the pageant distributes "spare states" to them so all have an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities in the final night. Traditionally, strong candidates have been pulled from Caracas, Zulia and Carabobo states, although they can come from all over the country; e.g. in 2003 the Miss Centroccidental pageant sent seven candidates to the pageant, while in 2005 only one proceeded to the finals. In 2000, the casting made in Zulia State (called Miss Venezuela Zulia at that time) sent 7 girls to that year's finals. The pageant reserves the right to remove any candidate that is deemed not to be performing up to standard, so there is no guarantee that a contestant may participate in the final night of competition. However, such decisions are usually made before the delegates are convened and the various state sashes are handed out. The pageant keeps a "reserve" pool of willing candidates always available to replace any last minute rejected contestant. Many aspirants will also make it into the final 50 or 60, only to be eliminated from the