Juan Carlos Sarazua possibility of accessing Spanish nationality for Guatemalans who move to the Peninsula, as well as Spaniards living in Guatemala, both cases thanks to the respective registry. The agreement established reciprocity in cases where a national acquires the nationality of the counterpart and then returns to its country of origin. In that case, he or she could recover their original nationality. The beneficiaries of this agreement could enter the other State without a visa, only the passport would be requested36. 4. Contemporary debates The creation of legal regulations on dual nationality in Guatemala has its gaps. On the one hand, it recognises dual citizenship for Central American cases, but does not regulate this condition in all its aspects. It accepts for example that Guatemalans with double passports can leave or enter the country with any available document. That is, it recognises the existence of such condition. But it does not specify other possible conflicts, leaving in the air solutions to other situations such as voting abroad37. Above all, given the huge number of Guatemalans residing in the United States who cannot travel to the country to vote. In this sense, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal only recognises the districts located in the country, thus denying them the opportunity to vote, a right that is exercised in other countries. According to some estimates of the United States Census for 2010, it was estimated that there were 1,044,209 people in the country who identified themselves as Guatemalan, representing 2.1% of the total number of Hispanics or Latinos. That is, the sixth largest Latin group38. Of the binomials that participated in the last elections of September 6th, 2015, only 3 of 14 agreed to meet with Guatemalan migrant organisations in the United States to discuss the possibility of reforming the Electoral and Political Parties Law in order to allow voting from afar. It is a struggle that has been going on for many years, but the different governments have not wanted to make an effort in this sense despite the fact that remittances from the United States are equivalent to 10% of the GDP39. Another debate concerning citizenship regards the construction of strong institutions accompanied by internal democratisation, a dilemma that goes beyond the periodical exercise of elections, having to do with the form of citizen participation before and during the electoral process. The best example is with local elections, as happens in the Development Councils/Municipalities. The exacerbation occurred in the 1990s as a result of the decentralisation of the State, a process that made them both receive more decisional space and allocation of funds. With this, the election of 36 Convenio, 1961. Lourdes Lima Conde, “Análisis jurídico y doctrinario del uso al derecho de la doble nacionalidad americana-guatemalteca en forma automática de los migrantes guatemaltecos nacionalizados americanos” Tesis licenciatura, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 2009, 62-80. Disponible en http://biblioteca.usac.edu.gt/tesis/04/04_8172.pdf 38 Rosa Tock “El voto Guatemalteco en Estados Unidos, Plaza Pública, 3 de enero de 2012, disponible en http://www.plazapublica.com.gt/content/el-voto-guatemalteco-en-estados-unidos 39 Arecely Martínez “No Votamos, pero Sí Contamos: el voto de los migrantes”, Plaza Pública, 26 de septiembre de 2015. Disponible en http://www.plazapublica.com.gt/content/no-votamos-pero-sicontamos-el-voto-de-los-migrantes 37 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/4 - © 2020 Author 13