The Cuban regime has proposed a new Citizenship Law that will facilitate both acquiring and renouncing Cuban citizenship.

Significantly, it empowers the “President of the Republic” to unilaterally revoke citizenship from those who, from abroad, engage in activities deemed “contrary to the high political, economic, and social interests of the Republic of Cuba.”

The draft also grants the President the authority to strip citizenship from any Cuban who joins “an armed organization with the intent to threaten the territorial integrity of the Cuban State, its citizens, or other residents.”

This measure aligns with a longstanding aim of the Cuban bureaucracy, which has historically treated numerous regime opponents as "non-Cubans" without legal grounds. The draft formalizes into law the practice of branding and treating dissidents, activists, and independent journalists as “stateless,” “anti-Cuban,” or “wrongly born,” viewed by the regime as “traitors.”

Although this measure justifies the President’s authority to revoke citizenship by citing the protection of “State” and “Republic” interests, in reality, the State in Cuba is synonymous with the political force led by the country’s “President,” the communist party. The Republic does not genuinely exist, as Cuba operates under a totalitarian regime that disregards republican principles.

Nevertheless, this long-anticipated draft by a considerable portion of Cuban citizens can also be interpreted as part of the repressive tactics employed by some authoritarian regimes in the region.

The draft echoes Nicaragua's Law No. 1190, which amended Article 21 of its Constitution to state explicitly that “traitors to the homeland” would lose their status as “Nicaraguan nationals.” This law, published in Nicaragua’s Official Gazette in January 2024, had been in effect since February 2023, when the Ortega-Murillo regime arbitrarily stripped 222 political prisoners of their nationality, deported them, and confiscated their properties.

The Ortega regime relied on a court ruling that offered reasoning similar to the Cuban draft to justify citizenship deprivation. The judge ruled that the decision applied because the exiled individuals had harmed “the supreme interests of the nation as established in the legal order, international human rights conventions, and treaties, disrupting peace, security, and the constitutional order.”

Subsequently, the Ortega regime employed the same rationale against another 94 opponents, intellectuals, and media directors.

Given this precedent, it is anticipated that once the Cuban draft is enacted, it could be used by the First Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee to strip citizenship from those deemed “enemies.”

The draft also allows for citizenship revocation to be decided unilaterally through a Presidential Decree. It states that the only recourse against this decision is a Reform procedure, which practically means the affected individual can only petition the “President” to reconsider his own decision.

Although the draft appears to set limits on the deprivation of citizenship, it includes vague provisions that enable the President to bypass them. It stipulates that citizenship can only be revoked when the justification is “indubitably verified” and can only be applied to those who possess “another citizenship.”

Initially, this provision seems designed to prevent affected individuals from becoming stateless. However, the draft also indicates that revocation can apply to those who “do not effectively reside in the country,” suggesting that all residents abroad, regardless of whether they have another citizenship, could be stripped of their Cuban citizenship.

Moreover, the draft allows the President to circumvent these safeguards in cases of alleged “serious harm” to national security, state stability, international relations, or public health. In such cases, the “President” could enforce citizenship loss without adhering to the law’s requirements, proceeding with minimal formalities.

In Cuba, it is the Ministry of the Interior (Minint), particularly its State Security organs, that unilaterally determines when a person poses a risk to national security, is of public interest, or threatens order. By enabling citizenship deprivation without formal procedures for those labeled as such, the draft not only legitimizes this historical practice but also raises the possibility that even Cuban citizens residing within the country could be stripped of their citizenship.

What is even more concerning is that once deprived of their citizenship, Cuban residents would be reclassified as foreigners or “non-Cubans” and could be subjected to “legal” deportation or expulsion procedures, similar to those seen in Nicaragua.