Call him “the undefeated.” Fidel Castro, at the age of 81 and suffering from a long illness, officially stepped down this morning as president of Cuba.

And he did it on his own terms — after half a century of iron-clad rule of the Communist island nation 90 miles off the Florida coast, having faced down 10 U.S. presidents and survived Cold War plots to topple him.

Now, with his brother Raul Castro ready to succeed him — and with Fidel himself promising to fight on “as a soldier of ideas” — the question for Cuba, and the U.S., is what exactly will change.

This hour, On Point: Cuba after Castro.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Carol Williams, Caribbean bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times.

Julia Sweig, senior fellow and director for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, author of “Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground.”

Andro Nodarse-Leon, a director of the Cuban-American National Foundation.

Adriana Bosch, a documentary filmmaker, she produced the PBS American Experience documentary “Fidel Castro.”

Tags: Cuba, Fidel Castro, politics