Cuba after the Castros: A look at legacy and challenges ahead

The Cuban government on Wednesday selected 57-year-old Vice President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez as the sole candidate to succeed Raul Castro in a transition aimed at ensuring that the country's single-party system outlasts the aging revolutionaries who created it. (Source: AP)

READ | Miguel Diaz-Canel formally proposed to replace Raul Castro as Cuban president

Castro brothers have run Cuba for nearly six decades and began life in a remote, rural part of the island known as Biran. (Source:AP)

Both Fidel and Raul Castro turned to radical politics at a young age and burst into prominence in 1953 leading a failed attack in Santiago hoping to topple the dictatorship of Batista. On January 1, 1959, Batista fled and Fidel Castro became the unquestioned leader of Cuba, with his younger brother put in charge of the armed forces. (Source: AP)

READ | Raul Castro nears retirement as Cuban president

Former Cuba President Fidel Castro’s nearly five-decade rule as Cuba's "Maximum Leader" was characterised by meandering, hours-long speeches, unquestioned decisions and micromanagement of government programs and policies.(Source: AP)

Cuba's acting President Raul Castro sits next to the chair usually occupied by his older brother Fidel Castro, at a parliament year-end session in Havana, Cuba. A severe gastrointestinal illness in 2006 nearly killed the then President Fidel, forcing him to turn power over to his younger brother.(Source: AP)

Raul Castro became acting president in 2006 when his brother Fidel Castro surprised the world and announced his retirement following emergency surgery. In 2008, the National Assembly formally elected Raul to the post. Three years later he was named leader of the Communist Party of Cuba. (Source: AP)

Raul Castro's 12 years in office has seen dramatic changes in Americans' ability to travel to Cuba, with a dramatic opening under U.S. President Barack Obama, then a partial reduction under President Donald Trump. (Source: AP)

In a file photo, the outgoing Cuban President Raul Castro, right, lifts up the arm of former US President Barack Obama, at the conclusion of their joint news conference at the Palace of the Revolution, in Havana, Cuba. Castro and Obama agreed to restore diplomatic relations in 2014, after five decades of hostility. Both nations opened embassies and began negotiations on a wide range of issues. (Source: AP)

Raul Castro’s successor Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez will have to manage the delicate relationship with Cuba’s prosperous exiles at a time when relations with the US have dropped from an unprecedented high under President Barack Obama to a deep low under Trump. (Source: AP)

Raul Castro is stepping down from Cuba's presidency, but he isn't giving up all his power. The 87-year-old former guerrilla remains head of Cuba's Communist Party, a position that leaves him with broad authority including much oversight of the man who is replacing him as president. (Source: AP)

It is the first time in almost sixty years that a Castro will not be president of Cuba. (Source: AP)