1. Jimmy Morales comes from a circus family and is an Evangelical Christian.
24 Facts About Jimmy Morales
1. 2.
Jimmy Morales's father was killed in a car accident when he was three years old, prompting him, his mother and three siblings to move to his grandparents' house, where he grew up.
3.
Jimmy Morales holds degrees in business administration and theology from the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.
4.
Jimmy Morales holds a master's degree in strategic studies with a specialization in security and defense from Mariano Galvez University.
5.
Jimmy Morales furthered his studies in strategic studies at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.
6.
Jimmy Morales rose to fame as a TV comedian, starring in the series Moralejas alongside his brother Sammy.
7.
Jimmy Morales formally changed his first name from James to Jimmy by deed poll in 2011.
8.
Jimmy Morales has been married for three decades to Patricia Marroquin, and has three children.
9.
In 2013, Jimmy Morales joined the small National Convergence Front and became its Secretary-General.
10.
In 2015, Jimmy Morales was nominated as the FCN's presidential candidate.
11.
Jimmy Morales's priorities were fighting corruption and dealing with chronic malnutrition, low education levels, and insecurity.
12.
Jimmy Morales's slogan was "Neither corrupt, nor a thief".
13.
Jimmy Morales ran on a platform of conservative values and against corruption.
14.
Jimmy Morales was initially considered an outsider but surprisingly led the field in the first round of the election, qualifying for a runoff alongside former First Lady Sandra Torres.
15.
Jimmy Morales' success came after both former vice president Roxana Baldetti and outgoing president Otto Perez Molina had to step down and were arrested on fraud and corruption charges.
16.
Jimmy Morales' success was viewed as a sign of the distrust of many Guatemalans towards the traditional political elite that ruled the country for decades.
17.
Jimmy Morales was sworn into office as the 50th president of Guatemala on January 14,2016.
18.
Ordonez and Jimmy Morales, for their part, denied that there was a constitutional restriction for her to continue as Minister.
19.
On 24 December 2017, Jimmy Morales announced that he planned to move the Guatemalan embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
20.
On 18 June 2018, the Jimmy Morales government was widely criticized for its slow action in favor of Guatemalans affected by the American policy of separating immigrant families; this caused the dismissal of the presidential spokesman Heinz Heimann, who, a day before his removal from the office, said that the government respected the policy of President Trump.
21.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Raul Jimmy Morales had refused to sign the executive order and was removed from office along with Vice-minister Carlos Ramiro Martinez, and vice-minister Anamaria Dieguez resigned.
22.
Jimmy Morales was later arrested and charged with corruption in January 2018, relating to the special bonus to Morales.
23.
President Jimmy Morales denied the bonuses were illegal but did return approximately $60,000 to the government.
24.
In 2023, Jimmy Morales announced his candidacy for deputy to the Congress for the 2023 general election, while his brother Sammy Jimmy Morales announced his presidential candidacy, both representing the National Convergence Front.