Cuba's Raúl Castro announces he will step down in five years

Cuban President Raúl Castro announced on Sunday that he won't remain as the Communist island's leader after he completes a new five-year term the National Assembly elected him to serve.

"This will be my last term," said the 81-year-old, whose retirement in 2018 would put an end to the Castro brothers' nearly 60-year rule on the island.

Many believe that Miguel Díaz-Canel, who was elected first vice president of the Council of State, could become Castro's successor.

Former President Fidel Castro made a surprise appearance at the National Assembly session, and was seen conferring with his brother throughout the day. The 86-year-old Fidel Castro has rarely been seen in public since he stepped down as president in 2006 following a still-undisclosed severe illness. The last time he appeared before the assembly was in 2010 to warn of the dangers of nuclear proliferation.

The 86-year-old Fidel Castro has rarely been seen in public since he stepped down as president

Fidel Castro serves as a deputy and was re-elected in the February 3 legislative poll to represent Santiago de Cuba.

But the biggest surprise of the session was the election of Díaz-Canel, a 52-year-old party loyalist and close aide to Raúl Castro, who replaces José Ramón Machado Ventura, one of the revolutionaries that fought alongside Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra.

Díaz-Canel graduated in electrical engineering and was a radio specialist in the armed forces. He also worked as a professor at the Central University of La Villa. When he was young he wore his hair long and was a big fan of the Beatles at a time when listening to their records was prohibited in Cuba. Those who know him say that Díaz-Canel has risen in recent months in the Communist Party ranks, and has made more high-profile appearances at public events.

In the 1980s, he was part of a group of young leaders, headed by then-Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina, who were seen as reformers. When Robaina was relieved in 2002, many in his group were purged from leadership positions. A similar incident also occurred when former Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and then-Vice President Carlos Lage were demoted by Raúl Castro in 2009 and given lower positions in the party structure. Díaz-Canel survived both purges.

Another major change was the election of Esteban Lazo, 69, as the head of the National Assembly. He replaces Ricardo Alarcón, 75, who headed the body for more than two decades.