Raul Castro, has announced that he is resigning as leader of the country’s Communist Party, effectively ending the Castro family’s decades rule over the island nation.
For the first time in 60-years the island nation will not have a Castro at any level of leadership.
Raul Castro, who is the brother of revered former Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, today told his party’s Congress that he’s handing over leadership to a younger generation which he says is full of passion and an anti imperialist spirit.
Jamaica and Cuba has had a long history of diplomatic cooperation on a range of issues including medicine and construction.
Former Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson, in reacting to the news of Castro’s retirement, hailed the Castro brothers as defenders of the dignity of people everywhere.
The Castros rule over Cuba began in the 1950s, when his brother, Fidel, seized power in the Cuban revolution of 1959.
Raul Castro succeeded his brother as President of Cuba in April 2011. Fidel Castro died in 2016.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel is widely expected to succeed Castro as leader of the communist party.
Former Prime Minister Patterson, who enjoyed a close working relationship with Fidel Castro, says he expects a smooth transition in Cuba.
Raul Castro’s successor will be voted in at the end of the party’s ongoing four day congress.
The transition comes amid the country’s worst economic crisis since the end of the Cold War.
Former US President Donald Trump had imposed harsh economic sanctions on the island nation, accusing the Castro regime of supporting terrorism.
Raul Castro has rejected the US sanctions as imperialist tyranny.
The US decades long embargo has also been blamed for the economic situation on the island.
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