Below, lawmaker Maria Corina Machado center —illegally ousted from the National Assembly—flees as soldiers attack her with tear gas during a peaceful protest.
Among its former students is the current Miss Venezuela, 23-year-old Mariana Jimenez, who spent a year at the academy before being spotted by one of the pageant show's talent scouts.
Her grandmother Aura Ramirez, 66, watches from one of the front seats, applauding and shouting as she parades by.
Description: Situated on the first floor of an office block in the Sabana Grande district of downtown Caracas - incidentally the country's plastic surgery boulevard - the Belankazar academy has 600 girls on their books, aged five to 29.