Overview
- López is slated to receive Spanish nationality through a royal decree at the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, using the discretionary carta de naturaleza route.
- The government says the fast track is necessary because Venezuelan authorities blocked the papers required for the normal process and keep records tied to his past detention.
- Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares confirmed the plan on RAC1 and defended it as a foreign‑policy decision for a person of exceptional relevance in response to domestic criticism.
- Caracas announced the annulment of López’s passport and moved to strip his nationality late last year, a step Spain views as forcing opponents into a legal limbo that this decree would end.
- López has lived in Madrid since 2020 after taking refuge in Spain’s Caracas embassy in 2019, and the decision could both guide future cases for Venezuelan exiles and affect any future run in Venezuela, where candidates with dual citizenship must first renounce the extra nationality.