Castro retires as party head

RAúL Castro, Fidel’s brother, is resigning his leadership of Cuba’s Communist party aged 89.

He made his announcement at the opening of the eighth congress of the party, saying he was retiring with a sense of having “fulfilled his mission... confident in the future of the fatherland”.

He added that the new leadership were party loyalists with decades of experience, “full of passion and anti-imperialist spirit”.

Raúl took over as party head in 2011, with Fidel dying in 2016, aged 90.

Miguel Diaz-Canel, 60, became president in 2018.