Fidel Castro may have survived his operation this week, but as he hands over power to his younger brother Raul , the beginning of the end of his extraordinary political career seems to be in sight. In a statement read out by his secretary on state television on Monday night, Cuba's communist leader said that he would need several weeks to recuperate following surgery on his intestines.

Castro announced that he would be handing over the reins to his right-hand man and constitutional successor Raul Castro. The 75-year-old has been head of the army and defense minister and has worked behind the scenes to maintain the one-party regime on the Caribbean island, while his more charismatic elder brother became a left-wing icon and revolutionary folk hero.

Raul Castro, who has yet to make any public statement or appearance since taking over from his brother, now takes over as commander in chief of the Cuban army and first secretary of the communist party. Fidel Castro will be 80 on August 13th and said that celebrations that were scheduled to mark the occasion will now be postponed until December 2nd, the 50th anniversary of the Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces. Castro has ruled Cuba since overthrowing the regime of President Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Since then he has survived numerous attempts by the United States to oust him and has managed to overcome the demise of most of the world's communist regimes by opening the country to tourism. However, even Fidel can't live forever, and now as the post-Castro era looms there is increased speculation about how Cuba will cope with the transition.

Conservative daily Die Welt writes that Castro has been able to survive so long largely thanks to his brother Raul, head of the army, who is now to maintain Cuba in its "familiar eccentricity." However he lacks his brother's huge charisma that allowed Fidel to become an icon, like his comrade Che Guevara. "There are no others of his kind," the paper writes, even if some try to copy the original, such as Gaddafi, Allende, today's "atom freaks" Kim Jong Il and Ahmadinejad, or Hugo Chavez. "Meanwhile the Cubans are poor and completely miserable, the stepchildren of the world's comrades and the flocks of tourists."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes that while many US presidents have failed to oust Castro, the world's longest-serving dictator has now given up power himself. By making his younger brother the ruler of Cuba, "the message to friend and foe is clear: the revolution goes on." However, nobody really knows how long this rule will continue, "or even if Castro is still alive." "What is actually going on in the inner circle of power in Cuba, is hidden from the world's press as it is from the Cubans themselves." Just like the former Soviet empire or North Korea. Everything would indicate that the main aim of the handover to an ideologically committed communist "is to hold onto power for as long as possible." The paper writes that "what is certain is that the Castro era is at the beginning of the end." This era, which started when "an economically unimportant Caribbean island caused political shockwaves that could be felt across the world," is characterized by "Guerrilla fighting and the threat of world war, a macho in an olive green uniform acting as a socialist revolutionary icon for a whole generation of European and Latin American intellectuals, the export of revolution to Latin America and Africa, economic failure and shortages, liquidation of rivals, terror against dissidents."

The left-wing Die Tageszeitung writes that Fidel Castro has long been setting up his political legacy. "What is happening in the moment in Cuba is a trial succession." While Raul will make sure, "with repression if necessary," that Cubans continue to wave the revolutionary flags, the pragmatics behind the scenes are making sure that Cuba continues to function. "And Hugo Chavez will send enough oil to ensure that the lights don’t go out on the socialist island." Fidel may use his convalescence to make sure that the plans for after his death will be successful. If Raul can use his army "to keep the country in his iron grip" and everything goes satisfactorily then he won't need to come back to power, but "can have a dignified retirement in the role of elder statesman." It may be better for the Cubans if military man Raul doesn’t rule alone at first, but has "his more flexible and more popular brother" in the background as a corrective. The paper concludes that the question of whether "Castro's life's work has any future will only be decided when both brothers are gone."

The Financial Times Deutschland writes that "if revolutionary socialism was an intellectual party at which a group of people in the 60s and 70s were having a really good time, then Fidel Castro would be the star guest." Fidel Castro has become a legend of the 20th century: "He is the last charismatic figure of a movement that in the rest of the world has long announced its ideological bankruptcy." The paper is uncertain of what will happen when he gone. His brother Raul is also an old man and Fidel never groomed a younger successor. "There is no sign of a reformer who could at least rescue the ailing economy." In the post-Castro era "the party's cadres will be busy taking care of their own political survival." According to the paper, Cuban exiles in the US have long assumed that a time of democratic and economic openness would follow and there are already plans for helping a transitional government. "However the Havana regime will not fall as easily as the houses of cards in Eastern European in 1989/90." The paper argues that Castro has made the struggle against US interventionism "a question of national identity." And in Venezuela Hugo Chavez is waiting in the wings, who would like nothing better than to become godfather to a Cuba that would be an "outpost of the new left-wing revolution."

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes that although Castro has survived nine US presidents the tenth now has bigger worries and the Bush administration seems to "have lost sight of Cuba's fate." However, the paper argues that this should change very soon. In Miami the exiled Cubans are already dancing in the streets. "The vehemently anti-communist lobby have so far dictated Washington's hard-line policy towards Havana." According to the paper, it was this clientele that helped Bush to secure Florida and thus the White House in 2000. According to the paper, if one believes Bush's rhetoric then Cuba is just one example of the "world wide battle between freedom and tyranny." However, the administration also fears that any regime change that happens too rapidly could "throw the island into chaos" and send a flood of refugees heading towards Florida's beaches. The paper concludes that "Washington has no interest in this type of liberty."