Raúl Castro confirms retirement on historic visit to Mexico.

Cuban President Raúl Castro confirmed during a diplomatic meeting in Mexico on Friday he would be stepping down from office in 2018, an announcement he had already made two years ago. “I will not become the great-grandfather nor the great-grandson because otherwise Cubans would get bored of me,” Castro said, according to El Financiero.

The Cuban leader was at a lunch in Mérida, the capital of the southeastern state of Yucatán, with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. Castro said he would like to return to Merida after his retirement from office. President Raúl Castro and his brother, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, lived in Mexico City in 1955, where they planned the Cuban Revolution.

President Castro's visit to Mexico was his first as Head of State and reinforced a change in relations that were severed by former President Vicente Fox (2000-06), who made former Cuban leader Fidel Castro feel uninvited during a regional summit in Mexico in 2002. Fox at the time suggested to Fidel Castro that he leave the country and not attend the dinner for the leaders of the region.

Raúl Castro, however, honored the Mexico’s “peaceful stance and solidarity” as the country had been the only one in Latin America to not cut ties with Cuba during the Cold War. Now 84, Raúl Castro has already picked a likely successor and announced in 2013 his intention to establish term limits and age caps for the presidency.

At: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Raul-Castro-Confirms-Retirement-on-Historic-Visit-to-Mexico-20151107-0002.html
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My hope is that his succession may take place by way of elections, and above all that the Cuban people choose wisely (i.e. not somebody to Illiana Ros-Lehtinen's liking).