Tue January 28, 2003 12:34 PM ET
By Isabel Garcia-Zarza

HAVANA (Reuters) - Latin Americans are lining up in droves these days at Spain's consular offices around the region as they seek citizenship under a new Spanish law that makes close to a million of them eligible.

Even Cuban President Fidel Castro meets the criteria for gaining Spanish citizenship. Although Latin America's most famous leftist is unlikely to apply, many of his people are hoping to use their ancestry to gain the coveted European passport.

Cuban descendants of Spanish immigrants are not the only ones dusting off the birth certificates and baptism records of their parents and grandparents to lay claim to this new right.

Thousands of people have been lining up in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and other countries, a reflection of the hard times the region is going through.

Spain's nationality law was amended effective Jan. 9 to allow people of all ages to become citizens if one of their parents was a Spaniard born in Spain, when before only those under 20 could apply.

The grandchildren of Spaniards born in Spain also will have the opportunity to become citizens, but they must first obtain visas to live in Spain for a year.

Spanish officials have estimated that close to 1 million people would be eligible to apply, although they do not expect all of them to do so.

Castro, at 76, would have no problem under the new law gaining citizenship. The Cuban leader's father left Ancara, in the Spanish province of Lugo, at the end of the 19th century to seek his fortune on the Caribbean island, a colony of Spain for hundreds of years.

ESCAPE FROM NATIONS IN TURMOIL

Like Castro's father, millions of Spaniards at the end of the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century crossed the Atlantic in search of a better life in Spain's former American colonies.

"This new law was born out of the recognition of Spanish immigration to Latin America" a Spanish consul official said, asking his name not be used.

Some commentators have also suggested the law is intended to improve the chances that future immigrants to Spain, which has experienced an influx from north Africa, share its language and culture. It could also help address the wrongs suffered by Spaniards forced into exile by Gen. Francisco Franco.

Many Spanish immigrants went to prosperous Argentina in the first half of 20th century. Now an estimated 400,000 of their offspring and grandchildren, spurred by the crisis in that country, could cross the Atlantic in the opposite direction.

More than 50 percent of Argentina's 36 million inhabitants live in poverty and the unemployment rate is 17.8 percent.

The Spanish government estimates that in addition to the 400,000 potential candidates in Argentina, there are 100,000 in Mexico, the majority relatives of exiles from the Spanish civil war of the late 1930s. An estimated 100,000 Venezuelans are also eligible, along with 80,000 in Brazil, a similar number in Cuba, 60,000 in Chile and 50,000 in Uruguay.

The news has been received with enthusiasm in these countries, where long lines have formed outside Spain's consular offices to seek more information or apply for citizenship. Space and staff were added in some countries to handle the expected avalanche of applications.

In the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, where an opposition strike against President Hugo Chavez has dragged on for two months, hundreds, and at times thousands, have come knocking daily on Spain's doors.

"The political, economic and security situation in the country is unbearable ... If the situation was not as it is, I would not be in line. It is a reflection of the country," said Venezuelan businessman Julio Lopez, whose father came from Spain, as he waited in line documents in hand.

EUROPEAN UNION'S DOORS OPEN TOO

The doors not only of Spain, but to all of the European Union countries will be open for those eligible under the new law, once they obtain their citizenship, a process that takes several months.

A passport from any European Union country gives the holder access to the others.

Spanish authorities believe that not all the country's new citizens will move to Spain or other parts of Europe.

"People are going to seek citizenship because it includes some economic aid if they stay where they are," the consul official said.

For example, Spanish citizens living in Cuba may be eligible for up to $200 per year. That is no small sum in a country where the average monthly wage is around $15, not including free health care and education and subsidized housing and food.

Long lines have formed at Spain's embassy in Havana, a busy place even before this year. To leave the Caribbean island, Cuban citizens must seek the government's permission.

The Cuban government has made no comment on the program.

"Having another nationality makes things easier here, you have more possibilities to come and go as you please," said Juana Suarez, the daughter of a Spaniard who arrived in Cuba in the 1920s.