Girls as young as 12 are getting cosmetic surgery such as butt lifts and nose jobs under the watchful eye of their mothers in a desperate and extreme bid to become beauty queens in Venezuela.

In a country obsessed with winning international contests like Miss World and Miss Universe fame-hungry teens are going to shocking lengths to conform to the beauty pageant ideal.

They include extreme measures to lose weight, with girls as young as 16 undergoing drastic surgery to cut out part of their intestines so food passes through their body without being digested.

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Working it: MailOnline visited one of the hundreds of beauty academies in Caracas, Venezuela, dubbed 'Miss factories'. At Belankazar academy, above, there are 600 girls on the books, aged five to 29

Hopes and dreams: The girls - mainly from very poor backgrounds - hope success will bring them riches

Alumni: Among Belankazar's 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

Dedication: Mariana is currently preparing for Miss Universe - the top competition for beauty queens. She is spending 18 hours a day preparing for the Miss Universe finals in Florida, in January

Team: Mariana has a team of professionals who are with her 24/7 - including a nutritionist, personal trainer, protocol teacher, catwalk teacher, oratory coach, a talent assistant, make-up artists and clothing designers

Other methods to make themselves thin include sewing plastic mesh on girls' tongues to prevent them from eating solids, and having plaster casts fitted which shrink their waists.

Meanwhile, parents desperate to see their daughters crowned queens are injecting them with hormones, aged just eight or nine, to halt the onset of puberty and cause them to grow taller, our investigation found.

Disturbingly, most of the procedures are openly encouraged by the country's 'beauty academies', finishing schools for beauty queens attended by thousands of Venezuelan girls as young as four.

And many parents, who see their daughter's success as a route out of poverty, do whatever it takes - even getting into crippling debt - to finance places in the academies and pay for expensive surgical procedures.

But the craven pursuit of physical perfection - or rather the Barbie-doll look of Miss World winners - often ends in bitter disappointment for the starstruck youngsters, and sometimes tragedy.

Dozens of teenage girls die every year during cosmetic surgery in the country. A recent campaign aimed to educate Venezuelan girls about the dangers of liquid silicone butt injections before the age of 12 to 'get to them early, as parents tend to offer these injections as 15th birthday presents'.

The campaign in middle schools by an organisation called NO to Biopolymers, YES to Life foundation was set up by Mary Perdomo, who later died of the result of buttock injections she'd had four years earlier.

To be a beauty queen the breasts can't be too large or too flat. Often the surgery is just to change slightly the shape or the size. It also depends on which contest the girl wants to compete in Alexander Velasquez, Belankazar Academy director

Maria Trinidad, from the group, said: 'Every girl here dreams of being a "Miss". We Venezuelans see those people as the perfect women. When you live in a country where a beautiful woman has greater career prospects than someone with a strong work ethic and first-class education, you are forced into the mindset that there is nothing more important than beauty.'

The fact that Venezuela has produced more winners of international beauty pageants than any other nation is a source of national pride.

Their tally so far includes six Miss World, seven Miss Universe, six Miss International and two Miss Earth crowns - more titles that any other country.

Debora Menicucci, 23, will try and make it seven Miss World titles next week when she competes in the finals being held in London.

The annual Miss Venezuela contest - the precursor to Miss Universe - is the country's most popular television event, watched by two-thirds of the nation's 30 million population.

When the Miss Venezuela 2005 broadcast was interrupted for 15 minutes by a televised speech by then-president Hugo Chavez, thousands of angry viewers in Caracas protested by banging on pots from their windows and firing guns into the air.

Brutal: Many girls opt to have a plastic mesh sewn onto their tongue, making eating solid food unbearably painful. But others, aged 16 and 17, have even cut out a part of their intestines to absord less food

Pain: Oriana Gomez, 21, who came second in the country's Miss Sport contest, talked to MailOnline while in visible pain from a black strap tightly wrapped around her stomach, crushing her waist to just 25ins

'Too fat': Oriana was told she was 'too fat' to go on to compete in the Miss Venezuela contest - hence the drastic measures. Shockingly, the strap replaced a tighter and even more painful plaster cast stomach wrap which she had worn for two weeks 'I still have the bruises all over my torso,' she said

The quest for success has created a multi-billion pound beauty industry aimed at producing the world's most perfect pageant queens.

A week before the grand final of the most important contest of them all, Miss World, MailOnline visited one of the hundreds of 'beauty academies' which have sprung up in the South American nation to hone wannabe beauty queens.

Dubbed 'Miss factories', the schools train girls how to strut down a catwalk, walk in high heels, manners and diction, as well as giving advice on reaching the beauty queen standard of perfection - 90, 60, 90, referring to breast, waist and thighs.

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.

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.

Removing the lower intestine means that food exits the body faster. The girls who do this are the ones who aren't disciplined enough to lose weight by willpower alone. Sometimes the girls choose to do it, or sometimes it is the parents' choice Mr Velasquez

The girls spend a morning or afternoon at the school every week, sometimes travelling for hours from poor outlying districts of Caracas, or even rural areas outside the city.

Belankazar's director, Alexander Velasquez, said most of the girls are from middle or low-income families, with most parents on the minimum wage of around $50 a month.

The school's fees are $10 a month, although with other expenses such as fashion shows, purchasing dresses and make-up, parents end up forking out around $25 on average - which for some amounts to a HALF their monthly salaries.

Mr Velasquez told MailOnline: 'Most of the families are very humble. Some have two or three girls in the academy. They see their daughters as a chance for them to live a better life. Winning Miss Venezuela is the certain way for a poor girl to have money, fame and celebrity.

'When the girls start we already classify the girls, depending on their potential. The Top group and Mini Top group is for those girls who really have a chance at becoming a beauty queen.

'If at the age of 13 or 14 they are already 5ft 6in high, thin, good-looking, and possessing that certain style, then they have the chance, as long as they really want it.'

He said many girls - often pushed by their parents - go to extremes to achieve the look that could win them the most coveted tiara of them all.

He said: 'I've seen so many things. Some girls drop out of school and work in three or four jobs at the same time so they can pay for the academy, their make-up and the surgical procedures they need.

Desperate: Belankazar's director, Alexander Velasquez, said most of the girls are from middle or low-income families, with most parents on the minimum wage of around $50 a month

Tailored: Mr Velasquez said that the average age for a girl to get a breast implant is 16. He said: 'To be a beauty queen the breasts can't be too large or too flat. Often the surgery is just to change slightly the shape'

Forever young: Parents of girls in the academy who have been warned their daughters may not achieve the minimum beauty queen height of 5ft 9ins have given them hormone treatment to stave the onset of puberty

Hopes of a nation: Debora Menicucci will fly the flag for Venezuela at the Miss World finals in London

'The girls sometimes look for a boyfriend with money who can sponsor them, then when they've drained the poor guy out of all his money they'll dump him and find another. Of course, they are beautiful so it's not hard for them to convince a man to date them.'

Mr Velasquez said that the average age for a girl to get a breast implant is 16. He said: 'To be a beauty queen the breasts can't be too large or too flat. Often the surgery is just to change slightly the shape or the size. It also depends on which contest the girl wants to compete in.'

And he told of other aspiring queens who, unable to lose enough weight to reach the required measurements, have taken drastic measures to get thin. Many girls opt to have a plastic mesh sewn onto their tongue, making eating solid food unbearably painful.

It's very different being a beauty queen to being a model. A model is selling what they're wearing, a beauty queen is selling herself. It can get very personal Oriana Gomez, Miss Sport runner-up

And some girls, aged 16 and 17, have subjected themselves to even more invasive surgery, cutting a part of their intestines in a desperate attempt to lose the pounds.

He said: 'Going on a diet is expensive, so for many having the plastic fitted to their tongue is a cheaper way to lose weight.

'Removing the lower intestine means that food exits the body faster. The girls who do this are the ones who aren't disciplined enough to lose weight by willpower alone. It is an extreme measure, a last resort to make themselves thin.

'Sometimes it is the girls who choose to do these things, or sometimes it is the parents choice, and sometimes both the girls' and the parents' decision.

'The parents always want everything fast. My job is often to convince the parents to slow down, to wait a while until starting surgical procedures because when they are so young it's not good for the girls' development.'

Perhaps most disturbingly, some parents of girls in the academy who have been warned their daughters may not achieve the minimum beauty queen height of 5ft 9ins have opted for hormone treatment to stave the onset of puberty.

Tough: Catwalk teacher Gabriela Rojo watches each girl intently. 'Keep your head up,' she shouts. 'Make eye contact with your audience, look to the left and then to the right. Concentrate!'

Expense: The school's fees are £6 ($10) a month, although with other expenses such as fashion shows, buying dresses and make-up, parents end up spending £16 ($25) on average - for some half a month's pay

Pushy parents: Two mothers wait for their daughters who are practicing for a Christmas modeling event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Belankazar Academy and Modeling Agency. They both live outside Caracas and travel two hours to bring their daughters to the events. There is no suggestion they have arranged surgery for their daughters

One girl, aged nine, is undergoing the treatment which involves hormone injections to delay the child's normal development, allowing more time for her legs to grow.

Mr Velasquez believes academies like his are only good for Venezuela. He said: 'Not just for my country, but they would be good for any country. What we do is promote a good self-image, help people care for their image.

'When people feel good about the way they look, that is a positive thing for the country.

'I don't believe Venezuela has the world's most beautiful women, but we know how to produce beautiful, perfect women. That's why we excel in all the international beauty competitions.'

At 9am, the Belankazar beauty academy is already packed with young girls, all of whom share the dream of representing their country on the world stage. In one of the school's small rooms, one of the 30 groups are being taught how to strut down a wooden runaway studded with spotlights.

Almost all Misses have had some kind of plastic surgery. Fifty per cent of them have false hair. It's not cheating, it's a winning mentality Bruno Caldieron, model agent

One by one, the girls sashay down the platform, before giving a hip swivel, turning on the balls of their feet and setting off again to the back of the room.

Catwalk teacher Gabriela Rojo watches each girl intently. 'Keep your head up,' she shouts. 'Make eye contact with your audience, look to the left and then to the right. Concentrate!'

In another room, the girls are being taught how to dance - another skill the girls need to impress at beauty contests.

The next day, we join a fashion show organised by the academy inside a busy shopping mall in downtown Caracas, where more than 400 students are taking part.

The Christmas-themed event at the Sambil mall is one of the extra activities which families pay an additional fee to participate in, as well as the cost of the dresses the girls parade in.

Anxious parents pack the arena, sitting on the edge of their seats as their await their child's turn, hoping she will be noticed by a beauty pageant agent rumoured to be watching from the sidelines.

To pounding music, each girl strikes a pose before strutting confidently down the runway, posing again, blowing a kiss or making a heart with their hands, and heading back.

Many of the girls are wearing santa miniskirts, swimsuits or or skimpy outfits showing their midriffs.

Top flight: Winner Mariana Jimenez, first runner up Edymar Martinez and second runner up Maira Rodriguez pose during a news conference in October when the Miss Venezuela winner was announced

To the victor, the spoils: Dayana Mendonza, who won Miss Venezuela in 2007 and Miss Universe in 2008, received a £15,000 ($23500) diamand tiara, an apartment on Park Avenue in New York plus living expenses during her year-long reign. She also received a two-year scholarship to the New York Film Academy's acting programme, a full wardrobe, shoe collection and personal stylist, prizes which total over £250,000 ($390,000)

Mover and shaker: One of the central figures of Venezuela's beauty industry is Bruno Caldieron, 42, who owns the franchises to seven competitions, including the popular Miss Sport. Mr Caldieron stars in a TV reality show, Extreme Beauty, where he whittles down teenage girls to compete in the Miss Sport contest

All the girls, including the very youngest, strut in high-heels and heavy make-up. Occasionally one stumbles on her heels.

The momentarily lapse is met with audible groans by watching parents, and the girl looks mortified.

One of the girls, 15-year-old Yorgelys Mero, is wearing a short red santa dress and fishnet arm sleeves.

Her grandmother Aura Ramirez, 66, watches from one of the front seats, applauding and shouting as she parades by.

The retired hospital worker, who took in Yorgelys and her younger brother after their mother left home, later tells us how she receives just $48 a month.

For this event, she had spent three times this amount on her granddaughter's dress and shoes.

She said: 'Of course I believe Yorgelys will be a beauty queen one day. It means everything to me. It's a two-hour bus journey from where we live to the academy, but it's worth all the time and money.

Of course I believe Yorgelys will be a beauty queen one day. Sometimes we go without food to pay for it (the academy). I don't call it a sacrifice, I call it effort. One day it will all be worth it Aura Ramirez, grandmother to academy student Yorglelys Mero, 15

'Sometimes we go without food to pay for it. I don't call it a sacrifice, I call it effort. One day it will all be worth it.'

For most of the girls, their dream is to be noticed by organisers of Quinta Miss Venezuela, a boot-camp where contestants are whittled down from 500 to the final 60 who will compete for the coveted national title.

And for the lucky few who reach the top, the rewards are immense. Winners are catapulted from obscurity to overnight fame and fortune.

Dayana Mendonza, who won Miss Venezuela in 2007 and Miss Universe in 2008, received a £15,000 diamand tiara, an apartment on Park Avenue in New York plus living expenses during her year-long reign.

She also received a two-year scholarship to the New York Film Academy's acting programme, a full wardrobe and shoe collection and a personal stylist, prizes which total over £250,000.

Another Venezuelan Miss Universe winner, Irene Sae, who was crowned in 1997, was elected a mayor and later ran against Hugo Chavez for the country's presidency.

One of the central figures of Venezuela's beauty industry is Bruno Caldieron, 42, who owns the franchises to seven competitions, including the popular Miss Sport, and is also the agent of the current Miss Venezuela, Mariana Jimenez.

Mr Caldieron stars in a TV reality show, Extreme Beauty, where he whittles down teenage girls to compete in the Miss Sport contest.

In an interview with MailOnline at his home in the upmarket Bello Monte district of Caracas, the beauty pageant guru admitted that the industry actively encourages girls to correct 'imperfections' with cosmetic surgery.

Child stars: A young student of the academy on the catwalk during the 25th anniversary show

Pressure: Dozens of teenage girls die every year during cosmetic surgery in the country. A recent campaign aimed to educate Venezuelan girls about the dangers of liquid silicone butt injections before the age of 12 to 'get to them early', as parents tend to offer these injections as 15th birthday presents. There is no suggestion the girl in the picture has had any procedures

Not my type: Mr Caldieron said that he doesn't want to create lookalikes 'there is a type of look that always wins, and we need to produce that type... of to get to the top we need to do some retouches, then no problem'

He said: 'We don't want to create lookalikes, but there is a type of look that always wins, and we need to produce that type. And if to get to the top we need to do some retouches, then no problem.

'If the girl's stomach isn't perfectly flat, she should have liposuction. If her nose doesn't have that little curve, then she should have a nose job.

'If her hair is too thin, we need to add hair by transplanting it onto her head. If their teeth aren't absolutely perfect, we can sculpt the teeth.

'Every pageant has a slightly different ideal. For a girl who wins Miss Sport and wants to enter Miss Venezuela, for instance, she'll have to lose at least six kilos. Then she might have to have more surgery so her nose or jaw looks aesthetic on her thinner face.'

I wasn't losing weight faster enough, so I was advised to have the plastic mesh fitted. I wore it for a whole month and I lost 6kg (13lb) . But the pain was unbearable Oriana Gomez

He said that the present Miss Venezuela is preparing to have surgery on the tip of her nose to fit the ideal for Miss Universe.

'Almost all Misses have had some kind of plastic surgery. Fifty per cent of them have false hair. It's not cheating, it's a winning mentality. And besides, it's not wrong if there is no rule prohibiting it.'

Mr Caldieron, who accompanies Venezuelan entries at international competitions, said contestants prepare for the pageants with the same commitment as Olympic athletes.

He said: 'Miss Venezuela, Mariana, is right now spending 18 hours a day preparing for Miss Universe.

'She has a team of professionals who are with her 24/7. They include a nutritionist, personal trainer, protocol teacher, catwalk teacher, oratory coach, a talent assistant, and a team of make-up artists and clothing designers.

'On the day of the competition they work with a military strategy, studying the hair styles and dress designs of the other contestants before making their decisions.

'Everyone always waits to see what the Venezuelan contestant will do, so we always need to be one step ahead.'

One of the girls who went through Mr Caldieron's boot camp was Oriana Gomez, who eventually came second in the Miss Sport contest.

The reason she didn't win, he said, was that 'she was fat. She didn't want to lose the weight. I couldn't handle her.'

Unashamed: Mr Caldieron told MailOnline: 'If the girl's stomach isn't perfectly flat, she should have liposuction. If her nose doesn't have that little curve, then she should have a nose job'

Hurt: Miss Sport runner-up Oriana Gomez said: 'A model is selling what they're wearing, a beauty queen is selling herself. It becomes very personal, and for young girls that can be very difficult'

We tracked down Ms Gomez, who spoke to MailOnline in a coffee shop in the centre of Caracas.

The 21-year-old beauty was in visible pain as she spoke. Later she lifted her top to black strap tightly wrapped around her stomach, crushing her waist to just 25 inches (63 cm).

The strap replaced an even more painful and restrictive plaster cast stomach wrap which she had worn for two weeks before having it removed three days earlier. It was just one of the numerous attempts she had made to lose weight. 'I still have the bruises all over my torso,' she said.

'It's supposed to make me lose 6 cm (2.4in) around my waist. A lot of people have told me that I am too fat to compete, it's a constant battle for me to get thin enough.'

She said that, on a pain scale of one to ten, the stomach strap is a five and the plaster cast was a nine.

But by far the worst was the slimming method used by many budding pageant queens, a plastic mesh which is sown onto the tongue, making eating solid food so painful it is impossible.

She said: 'I was 18 and competing for Miss Venezuela. I wasn't losing weight faster enough, so I was advised to have the plastic fitted. It was something I was advised to do directly by the organisation.

My dream is to be rich and famous and live in the United States, somewhere where my family and I aren't in danger Yorglelys Mero

'I wore it for a whole month and I lost 6kg (13lb) . But the pain was unbearable. And it had another side effect once I'd had it removed, when I started eating solid foods again I put all the weight on again.'

But Ms Gomez, who is now hoping to compete in Miss Venezuela for a second time, said she would consider such extreme methods again in order to achieve her dream.

She said: 'These things are good if your goal is be Miss Venezuela, for those who want to go all the way. Yes, there are risks, and it's up to each one to take the risks.'

But she said she worries for the many young, naive budding beauty queens who are coming up the ranks in the country's countless beauty academies.

'They can get very hurt,' she said. 'It happens a lot at this stage, when they are just starting out. It's very different being a beauty queen to being a model. A model is selling what they're wearing, a beauty queen is selling herself.

'It becomes very personal, and for young girls that can be very difficult.'

We later visited one of those young wannabes, 15-year-old Yorgelys Mero, one of the Belankazar academy students, back at her grandmother's in the poor town of Santa Barbara, a two-hour drive south of Caracas.

The crumbling three-roomed brick house, on a dusty dirt road, doesn't have an electricity supply.

Yorgelys sleeps with her grandmother in one of the rooms, while the other belongs to her 13-year-old baseball fan brother Robinson.

Yorgelys said her dream is to become a beauty queen so she can help her family. She said: 'My grandmother has sacrificed so much to send me to the beauty academy. She gets up in the early hours and travels with me to Caracas, just so that one day I can achieve my dream of being crowned Miss Venezuela.

Wannabe: 15-year-old Yorlelys Mero, a student at the academy who dreams of being Miss Venezuela one day, said that she's been told she should have a nose job as her looks aren't European

Escape: Yorgleys, pictured with her grandmother, outside their crumbling home said: 'My dream is to be rich and famous and live in the United States, somewhere where my family and I aren't in danger'

'I want to give back all that she's given to me, and help the rest of my family too. My dream is to be rich and famous and live in the United States, somewhere where my family and I aren't in danger.'

It is a dream shared by millions of Venezuelan girls - but for Yorglelys it will be harder to achieve than for others, as she has indigenous features, not the pale, European look favoured by beauty pageants.

Her grandmother has already paid for a brace to fix imperfections on her teeth. And disturbingly, Yorglelys claims that teachers at the Belankazar academy have advised her to consider surgery to to reshape her nose.

She said: 'A lot of people have told me that I'm going to need a nose job. At the academy the instructors advise us that in order to achieve success we need to modify our faces with surgery.

'I don't want to. I think I'm beautiful as I am, I'm comfortable with the way I look. But if that's something I need to do to make it to the top, I will.'