Cuba's leadership is passing to a younger generation, with the last Castro leaving office and ending a 60-year family monopoly, but there is little other change as power remains firmly with the Communist Party.
At a four-day party congress starting Friday, 89-year-old Raul Castro will relinquish the country's most powerful position - that of party first secretary - to 60-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba's president.
This officially ends six decades of dominion over Cuban politics by Castro and his brother Fidel, who ruled for nearly half a century from 1959 to 2006 and is widely revered as the country's father and saviour.
However, observers say Raul is unlikely to completely relinquish his power and could continue to pull the strings from behind the scenes.