Sven Olof Joachim Palme (30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until his assassination in 1986.

Palme was a pivotal and polarizing figure domestically as well as in international politics from the 1960s onward. He was steadfast in his non-alignment policy towards the superpowers, accompanied by support for numerous liberation movements following decolonization including, most controversially, economic and vocal support for a number of Third World governments. He was the first Western head of government to visit Cuba after its revolution, giving a speech in Santiago praising contemporary Cuban revolutionaries.

Frequently a critic of Soviet and American foreign policy, he expressed his resistance to imperialist ambitions and authoritarian regimes, including those of Francisco Franco of Spain, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, António de Oliveira Salazar of Portugal, Gustáv Husák of Czechoslovakia, and most notably John Vorster and P. W. Botha of South Africa, denouncing apartheid as a "particularly gruesome system." His 1972 condemnation of American bombings in Hanoi, comparing the bombings to a number of historical crimes including the bombing of Guernica, the massacres of Oradour-sur-glane, Babi Yar, Katyn, Lidice and Sharpeville and the extermination of Jews and other groups at Treblinka, resulted in a temporary freeze in Sweden–United States relations.

Palme's assassination on a Stockholm street on 28 February 1986 was the first murder of a national leader in Sweden since Gustav III in 1792, and had a great impact across Scandinavia. Local convict and addict Christer Pettersson was originally convicted of the murder in district court but was unanimously acquitted by the Svea Court of Appeal. On 10 June 2020, Swedish prosecutors held a press conference to announce that there was "reasonable evidence" that Stig Engström had killed Palme. As Engström committed suicide in 2000, the authorities announced that the investigation into Palme's death was to be closed. The 2020 conclusion has faced widespread criticism from lawyers, police officers and journalists, decrying the evidence as only circumstantial, and too weak to ensure a trial had the suspect been alive.

Edit: meant to post this in /history but Sweden is tryna join NATO right now so /news works too.

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  • knifestealingcrow [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I'm planning a trip to Cuba, how do I avoid Havana syndrome

    Serious answers only

    (First part is true, if anyone has any advice that'd be great. This is the first time I've ever been able to actually travel so I really don't know what I'm doing. Aiming for December so I can attend las parrandas de remedios)

    • HarryLime [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I'll tell the Castros not to shoot the brain ray at you if you give me $10

    • LeninWeave [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Stay hydrated, maybe a glass of water for every few Mojitos. The extra liquid in your body will help block the Cuban death rays.

    • FRIENDLY_BUTTMUNCHER [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      It was a ton of fun the last time I was there. Get used to eating a lot of salt, and try and take in as much of the music scene as possible.

      • knifestealingcrow [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I was born eating salt, most of my childhood was spent eating salt pork, salt beef, salt fish, salt fish (the other kind), I'm basically a mountain goat at this point

    • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Even if you have enough cash to stay at a resort... don't.

      In my experience, folks outside the Core are far more kind and generous than any random people you'll meet back home. Doubly so in Cuba. Shit, I made friends with a Cuban dude about 15 years ago when I was in Mexico, and we're still buds now.

      • knifestealingcrow [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Resorts don't really seem like my thing anyway, part of the reason I want to travel so much is to meet people from the places I visit and I feel like I'd just be kinda secluded with a bunch of other travellers and presented with a watered down version of wherever I am at a resort. I had a friend who went to Florida and when I asked if she met anyone interesting all she really talked about was her family being at Disney and the gated resort she was in.

        I've heard about casa particulares, from what I can tell they're like Cuban Airbnb's??