The wife of acting Cuban President Raul Castro and one of the communist nation's most politically powerful women has died, the Cuban government announced.
Vilma Espin Guillois (77) died yesterday afternoon after "the long illness she was afflicted with" worsened in recent weeks, according to Cuban state television. She was said to suffer from severe circulatory problems in recent years.
Ms Guillois was with the Castro brothers at the start of their revolutionary battle a half-century ago.
An official mourning period was declared and the Cuban flag will be lowered to half mast at all public buildings and military bases.
Her ashes will be scattered during a private ceremony, with full military honours, at a date to be determined, according to the statement from Cuba's Communist Party leadership.
Born into a wealthy family in eastern Cuba, Ms Guillois became a young urban rebel after Fulgencio Batista took power in a coup, and she battled his dictatorship throughout the 1950s.
After the 1959 revolution, she became Cuba's low-key first lady as the wife of Defence Minister Raul Castro, Fidel Castro's designated successor, because Fidel was divorced.
Raul Castro (76) has been Cuba's acting president since 80-year-old Fidel ceded power in July after the first of several surgeries from which he is still recovering.