Fidel Castro's former wife visits Cuba

Mirta Diaz-Balart, the former wife of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, is visiting family in Havana and was photographed Friday attending a scientific seminar with their son, Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart.

Diaz-Balart, 80, was photographed as she joined her 59-year-old son at the inauguration of an international seminar on Nano-science held at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana.

The photos are the first of Diaz-Balart together with her son, a nuclear scientist, published in recent memory. They were released by the Cuban government's Prensa Latina news agency.

Though Diaz-Balart, who has lived in Spain for decades, is known to have visited her son in Cuba on previous occasions, she has not appeared in public and regularly avoided talking to the media about her family.

Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, who now teaches engineering serves as a scientific advisor to Cuba's ruling Council of State, delivered a lecture at the seminar titled "The great challenge of the small: The Cuban Strategy for Nano-technology."

Mirta Diaz-Balart left Cuba divorced Fidel Castro before his revolution triumphed in 1959, but their son remained on the island. She later married Emilio Núñez Portuondo, who died in 2006, and they had two daughters.

She is the aunt of Florida Republican Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart