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That's because of the interesting dynamic between Santa Cruz and Jalacte. It is an example of living together in peace and respect which is important and Daniel Ortiz examined this relationship in the context of the climate surrounding the pending referendums:

Daniel Ortiz Reporting

Down in Jalacte Village, the Belizean citizens there have no access to electricity, and very spotty access to Belizean telecommunications.

Making a phone call to a Digicell number is very close to impossible and taking the Speednet route is easier, but that person must go searching for phone signals at different strategic locations in the village.

As a result, the residents simply sign on with the Guatemalan phone companies, after all, their towers are less than a mile away.

Their Guatemalan neighbors enjoy access to power lines which provide them with much needed electricity, while those on the Belize side must use generators - if they have the finance - or a rigging of car batteries to power their homes.

The villagers on the Belize side choose to access important goods either by of a 2 and a half hour's drive to Punta Gorda Town, or they simply trek across to Santa Cruz, Guatemala by foot or by horseback. And as an added benefit, they get items cheaper over there because they don't encounter many taxes.

Commerce is regular thing between the two communities, and so there are many instances of the interactions between Belize and Guatemala in real time.

Because the Guatemalan claim to Belize has a long and enduring history, it easy to forget that both peoples can actually co-exist peacefully.

That's what the Alcalde of Santa Cruz is advocating for:

Alvaro Paredes - Alcalde of Santa Cruz, Guatemala
"I just want to say thanks to you for having this conversation with us, so that we can show you that there is no misunderstanding with us. If everything continues beneficially, there will be no problems because down here we all work with our hands, and that's how we Guatemalan's understand each other."

Paredes says that while they've lived peacefully with the villagers of Jalacte for years, they've been doing so without any official border line. He says that both Governments need to decide what that border is so that the relations between neighbor villages can improve even more.

Alvaro Paredes - Alcalde of Santa Cruz, Guatemala
"Truthfully, it's basically for the Belizean Government, and the Guatemalan Government to decide where exactly the line is, which side is Guatemala, and which side is Belize. No one has told us definitively where that line is, and once we're told, we'll respect it. But right now, there is no definite marking. We will respect what's for them over there, and they'll respect what's for us over here."

But while both governments continue to dispute over that issue, Paredes says that the villagers on both sides understand each other because they have the same way of life.

Alvaro Paredes - Alcalde of Santa Cruz, Guatemala
"The truth is, with the villagers, we don't have any problems, not one problem. Everybody work with their hands, smoothly without a problem, peacefully."

Santa Cruz Guatemala has an estimated population of approximately 800 villagers.