USA DAWN: NEWS AND UPDATES

Raúl Castro, who has walked alongside his brother Fidel at practically every turn since the Cuban Revolution, now must march into the future alone. But he had already stepped out of the once-pervasive shadow of Fidel. Raúl, 85, has been in the driver’s seat since an ailing Fidel “temporarily’’ ceded power to the then-defense minister in July 2006 and then succeeded Fidel as president of the Council of State and president of Cuba’s Council of Ministers on Feb. 24, 2008. He successfully navigated that potentially risky hand-over and embarked on a slow and steady stream of economic changes designed to ease the island’s many economic woes. The most dramatic change, however, came on Dec. 17, 2014 when Raúl and President Barack Obama announced that Cuba and the United States would be resuming diplomatic ties after more than five decades of confrontational relations. The surprise announcement capped 18 months of highly secret talks facilitated by Canada, the Vatican and ...