Castro announces last term

(Vatican Radio) Cuban President Raul Castro announced he would retire at the end of his second term in 2018, after being comfortably re-elected yesterday by Cuba's National Assembly.

He had been hinting broadly about eventually standing down, mentioning he has the right to retire. He officially set a timeframe for it yesterday.

Age is the issue. Raul who is 81, will be 86 by the end of his current term. Older brother Fidel, who is 86 now, illustrated the point by putting in a rare appearance at the opening ceremony of the National Assembly.

During his time at the helm, Raul has introduced a number of moderate common sense market-oriented reforms. But he is stressing these enabling seeds are not intended to supplant the socialist system.

One Castro or the other has been at the helm in Cuba since 1959. Raul's chosen successor, Vice President Miguel Diaz Canel Bermudez, aged 52, was not even born, when communism developed in the country.

Listen to the report by James Blears: