One of those political actors who did not get involved is former Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales. He's the Vice Presidential candidate for the National Unity of Hope Party, or U-N-E. He's running along with presidential candidate, Sandra Torres Cassanova - who is Narda Garcia's sister. It's an interesting pairing because Torres has Belizean roots, and Morales has a Belizean wife and children.
Because of strict campaigning rules - he couldn't talk at all about his candidacy or his political aspirations. But he did speak broadly on the issue of Guatemala - Belize relations - where he says 40 thousand Guatemalans live in Belize:...
Carlos Raul Morales, Running for Vice President
"Let me tell you something, there are probably about 40,000 people, Guatemalan people living in Belize. When you say incursions, you are, yes, since a long time ago I was the Guatemalan council in Belize and I know a lot I can tell probably some of you are coming from a Guatemalan too; your grand grand mother or grand grand father."
"Belize is another country and this is very important to understand because many people say Guatemala wants Belize, but remember, Belize is already a country. Remember that in 19…you got your independence in 1981 and Guatemala recognized independence in 1991. But Guatemala says that I believe we still continue to have some rights. The question is: what is the size of these rights? We'll ask the International Court of Justice to give us a solution."
Reporter
"Is Guatemala confident that it's going to win any territory or is this simply a case of going to the ICJ to tell the international community, "well we are committed to a peaceful solution and we want this dispute gone"?"
Carlos Morales
"Do you know what we will win, both countries? Peace. I hate to talk about what Belize will win or what Guatemala will win because when people focus on the territory, what we create are problems in both countries. What we need to win is the peace between both countries to finally have a definite border between both countries."
Reporter
"When a treaty is created or signed, it has a lifetime, it cannot be void, but I have heard that according to Guatemala, the government, the dispute is mainly centered on this treaty saying that there was breach in this treaty and because of that the treaty is void. How can you void a treaty?"
Carlos Morales:
"To be honest, I think it is going it be very interesting; the first thing the ICJ will define is the validity of this treaty."
"If it is valid, you have the answer, if it is not valid, we need to find out, it's going to a very very interesting case."
Guatemalan general elections will be on June 16, 2019.
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