Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Liberals & Carrera
The ruling classes split into two camps: the elite conservatives, including the Catholic
Church and the large landowners, and the liberals, who had been the first to advocate inde-
pendence and who opposed the vested interests of the conservatives.
A short succession of liberal leaders ended when unpopular economic policies and a
cholera epidemic led to an indigenous uprising that brought a conservative
ladino
pig farm-
er, Rafael Carrera, to power. Carrera held power from 1844 to 1865, undoing many liberal
reforms and ceding control of Belize to Britain in exchange for construction of a road
between Guatemala City and Belize City, a road that was never built.
