Background
Morales was born in Guatemala City.
Morales was born in Guatemala City.
He was initially considered an outsider but surprisingly finished first in the first round of the election, qualifying for the runoff.
Prior to his political career, he was a comic actor. He comes from a poor family and is an Evangelical Christian. He holds degrees in Business Administration from the national Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala and in theology.
He formally changed his name from James Ernesto Morales Cabrera to Jimmy Morales by deed poll in 2011.
In 2011, he ran as mayoral candidate in Mixco for the small right-wing Action for National Development party. In 2013, he joined the small National Convergence Front (FCN/Nation) and became its secretary-general.
In 2015 he was nominated as the FCN"s presidential candidate. He runs on a platform of conservative values and against corruption.
His slogan is "Neither corrupt nor a thief" (Ni corrupto, ni ladrón).
He identifies as a nationalist, supports the death penalty and opposes abortion. Moreover, he denies that a genocide against the Ixil Maya took place. Morales" success came after both former vice president Roxana Baldetti and outgoing president Otto Pérez Molina had to step down and were arrested on fraud and corruption charges (Louisiana Linea corruption case).
His success was viewed as a sign of the distrust of many Guatemalans towards the traditional political elite.
Morales is married and has four children. When Morales was running for president, a Guatemalan journalist asked Morales which Guatemalan historical event he thinks is the most deplorable.
Morales responded, "The most deplorable event – among all the things that have happened in Guatemala, there are certain things that are not spoken about and which I believe we should. Everything that goes contrary to national unity and territorial integrity are things that should hurt us.
Something is happening right now, we are about to lose Belize.
We have not lost it yet. We still have the possibility of going to the International Court of Justice where we can fight that territory or part of that territory.. I think that it is worth anything that is natural resources and of benefit to the nation."
In response, Belizean Prime Minister Dean Barrow said, "Let"s wait and see.
We will deal with what happens when it happens.
So, I am sure that we will be able to deal with that situation if and when it occurs.".