The Government of Spainthrough a Royal Decree, officially approved the opening of its second consulate in Cuban territory, which will be located in the province of Camagüey.
The main objective of the new diplomatic headquarters will be to facilitate more quickly the growing demand for consular procedures on the island, which until now could only be carried out at the Consulate General that operates in Havana.
According to a summary Based on what happened this Tuesday in the Council of Minister, and in which the measure appears, the future headquarters must promote “better attention to the Spanish community in the central and eastern region of the country”, considering that it must make use of “a limited communications and transport network” to carry out any procedure or request a service.
Among the objectives of the measure, the contribution to the attention of “a notable presence of Spanish tourism in the eastern part of the country” stands out.
The Camagüey consulate “will complement the work and capabilities of the Consulate General of Spain in Havana, which faces a growing number of registered people and a growing demand for visas, among other consular procedures,” the text adds.
The Spanish authorities do not refer to the date on which the new consulate must be operational, the certainty of which comes just over a month after the deadline for Cubans of Spanish descent to apply for nationality under the Democratic Memory Law (LMD) approved in 2022, also known as the Grandchildren Law.
Expanded plan
The intention of having a second consulate in Cuban territory was in the plans of the Government of Spain since the end of 2019, when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented its plans to expand the attention of its nationals scattered throughout the planet.
However, it was not until last September that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, referred to this initiative again, as part of Spain’s Foreign Action Strategy 2025-2028.
Until now, there were only offices on the island that functioned as honorary vice consulates in the cities of Santa Clara, Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba, mainly in charge of delivering passports requested by residents in these regions at the Consulate General in Havana.
Its functions also include procedures related to travel documents, Consular Registration Registration or Consular Civil Registry.
a little hope
The news of the upcoming opening of a Spanish consulate in Camagüey was received with optimism by the thousands of Cubans who have opted for nationality under the LMD, a procedure that, given the wide demand, could take years to complete, as the authorities of the Iberian nation have acknowledged.
Cuba is located behind Argentina among the nations that have generated the largest number of applications to obtain Spanish nationality through this means.
Exiles and descendants: Cuba is among the main issuers of applications for Spanish nationality
According to the most recent data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 53% of the requests registered until last September are concentrated between both countries.
Until that date, the Spanish Government has granted 237,145 nationalities to descendants of republican exiles after the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, out of a total of 876,321 applications received.
More than 95% of the procedures have been processed in consulates located in Latin America and in the Consulate General of Miami, United States.
