After 49 years in power, Fidel Castro has announced his retirement. He’d been hinting at this for a while, and two years ago had temporarily handed power over to his brother due to health problems. Now, it’s official:

“I neither will aspire to, nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief,” he told the newspaper, Granma.

Castro hasn’t been seen in public for over 19 months, although occasional staged photos and heavily edited video footage have been sporadically released to the press.

But don’t get too excited about regime change. The news may ultimately have minimal impact since the two people considered likely successors are his brother, Raul, although or Vice-President Carlos Lage Davila.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!