This measure, to be executed through a royal decree exceptionally, aims to provide the politician with documentation that the regime of Nicolás Maduro has been denying him for years. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has confirmed that "the Government will grant Spanish nationality express to Leopoldo López" to regularize his situation after almost five years of exile in Madrid. The decision to resort to the letter of nature responds to the extreme legal vulnerability of the opponent, who does not have a passport or recognition of his nationality in his own country.
As Minister Albares has argued, "this route has been used because there are some documents that, due to the very special situation in which Leopoldo López finds himself, he was unable to produce, and therefore, we have decided to use that rule, which is in the Spanish Civil Code." López, who has been residing in Spain since 2020 after previously seeking refuge in the Spanish embassy in Caracas, requested this route at the end of 2025 after unsuccessfully attempting the ordinary process.
It is worth noting that the chavista Supreme Court ordered the withdrawal of Venezuelan nationality from him for an alleged call for military invasion, a measure that the leader of Voluntad Popular deemed illegal from Madrid: "No Venezuelan born in Venezuela can have their nationality revoked." During his appearance, Albares defended the "protection" that the government of Pedro Sánchez has provided to various dissidents from the Caribbean country.
The minister has been firm in assessing the work of his cabinet in the face of criticism from the conservative opposition: "This is the government in the world that has done the most for Venezuelans and the only one in Spain that has done everything it could for them." This move reinforces the status of the López family in Spain, given that in 2015 the government of Mariano Rajoy already granted nationality to the parents of the opponent, Leopoldo López Gil and Antonieta Mendoza.
Currently, López lives in the Spanish capital with his wife, Lilian Tintori, and their three children. López's naturalization has caused a political earthquake in Venezuela, especially due to the legal implications it entails for a future presidential candidacy. The Venezuelan Constitution prohibits the head of state from having dual nationality, which would require López to renounce his Spanish nationality in order to compete in elections.
For now, polls show a complex scenario for the leader of Voluntad Popular: while María Corina Machado leads with 53% support, López is at 12% popularity, behind figures like Edmundo González Urrutia. While his electoral future is being defined, Leopoldo López continues to lead the World Liberty Congress, an international alliance he founded with Russian dissident Gary Kasparov to combat dictatorial regimes worldwide.