The eldest son of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro killed himself on Thursday after months of treatment for depression, state media reported. He was 68.
Official websiteCubadebate said Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart had been in a "deeply depressed state." A brief note read on state television said his treatment had "required an initial hospitalization regime then outpatient follow-up."
Castro Diaz-Balart had served as scientific adviser to the Council of State and was vice president of the Cuban Academy of Sciences. He studied nuclear physics in the former Soviet Union and preferred to stay away from political issues. He previously was head of Cuba's nuclear program.
His mother was Mirta Diaz-Balart, a woman from Cuba's aristocracy who Fidel Castro married in his youth before beginning the revolutionary struggle that later brought him and his brother Raul to power.
Because of his maternal lineage, Castro Diaz-Balart is related to U.S. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, who represents Cuban exiles in Florida.
His father died in November 2016 at age 90.