Gotabaya rajapaksa

For weeks, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the 76-year-old prime minister, had been under pressure to resign as the economy imploded and protests erupted. The brother of the president, Gotabaya, and a patriarch of his own political dynasty, Mahinda was once hailed as appachchi, the beloved father of the people. Now he was huddled in his second-floor bedroom, accompanied by relatives who frantically called army officers, pleading to be rescued. Outside the gates, anti-government protesters who had been attacked earlier by Mahinda’s supporters were taking their revenge — rioting, burning buses and torching hundreds of homes owned by allies of the Rajapaksas. A lawmaker from their party was beaten to death, his body dragged through the streets. The Rajapaksa brothers have dominated politics here for most of the last 20 years. After helping Mahinda win the presidency in 2005, his brothers Chamal, Gotabaya and Basil took over ministries that controlled three-quarters of the national budget and built popular support despite allegations of human rights abuses and corruption. But by 2019, when Gotabaya became president, the family was marred by infighting and dysfunction that would drive South Asia’s most developed nation into ruin. In interviews, current and former ministers, foreign diplomats and Rajapaksa confidants, some of whom spoke for the first time as they saw the family splinter, said Gotabaya and Mahinda, and their respective factions, clashed over ministerial appointments and agric...

Colombo, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka’s embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned after Rajapaksa, a 73-year-old retired military officer, was the eighth executive president of Sri Lanka. He is the younger brother of the family patriarch and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who ruled Sri Lanka for two terms and also served as prime minister until he was forced to quit earlier this year. Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s nearly three-year rule was criticised as the worst in post-independence Sri Lanka for his failure to contain the worst economic meltdown the island has seen in decades. The skyrocketing cost of living and enormous shortages of fuel and other essential items triggered Rajapaksa is also faulted for reversing the country’s democratic gains by changing the constitution and giving himself sweeping powers after winning the presidency in 2019. Divisive legacy Until recently, Rajapaksa was hailed as a war hero who led a ruthless military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels demanding a separate state in northern Sri Lanka. The decades-long civil war ended in 2009, leaving thousands of Tamil rebels, civilians and soldiers dead. The offensive was led by then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, with Gotabaya serving as his defence secretary. Following the deadly 2019 Easter Sunday bombings in churches and hotels, Rajapaksa, until then a political novice, was elected as president on the plank of national security as he rode on anti-Muslim sentiment in...

By Press Trust of India: Sri Lanka is not in the position to hold a snap presidential election this year because of the ongoing economic crisis and the government’s focus is on debt restructuring, Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardena said on Tuesday. “No election would be possible this year as the state finances have not improved”, Gunawardena said while responding to speculation that the government might opt to hold a snap presidential election. He said the government’s focus, for now, is centred on successfully ending the process of debt restructuring. Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as the President of Sri Lanka by the Parliament to serve the remainder of ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s term, which was supposed to end in November 2024. “Until we pay back the existing loans we will not be able to borrow”, he stressed. Sri Lanka has a tight September deadline from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to conclude its outstanding debt. The nearly USD 3 billion bailout from the IMF that was approved on March 20 was delayed due to the need to restructure debt. President Wickremesinghe, who is also the finance minister, is also under mounting criticism for holding back the local council election claiming the treasury was short of funds to allocate money for election expenditure. The opposition who blamed Wickremesinghe for postponing elections due to fear of losing has petitioned the highest court for intervention in the matter. The election for 340 ...

July 13 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who oversaw a ruthless crushing of Tamil Tiger guerrillas to end a long-running civil war and went on to become president, had been due to step down on Wednesday to appease a population angry over several tumultuous months of economic and political crisis. He chose to do so by fleeing the country. An immigration official said Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards left the country by a Sri Lankan air force plane in the early hours of Wednesday. A government source said he had gone to Male, the capital of the Maldives. After the dramatic storming of the president's official residence by protesters on Saturday, the speaker of parliament had said in a video statement that Rajapaksa had informed him that he would step down on Wednesday. Rajapaksa was part of one of Sri Lanka's most powerful political families in the country's post-independence history. Unlike his elder brother Mahinda, who dominated Sri Lankan politics for nearly 20 years in stints as president and prime minister, Gotabaya did not set out for a life in government. Sri Lanka has been run by the powerful Rajapaksa family for the better part of the last two decades. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected as the country's president in November 2019. Instead he joined the army at the age of 21, serving for two decades and rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Taking early retirement he emigrated to the United States, where he worked in information technology. Gotabaya...

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Gotabaya also spelled Gotabhaya, (born June 20, 1949, Palatuwa, Matara district, Sri Lanka), Early life and education Rajapaksa was born the fifth of nine children in a Buddhist After finishing his Career in the army and in the Ministry of Defense By the end of his military training and education, communal violence between the country’s In 1991 he served as deputy commandant of General Sir John Kotelawal Defence University. The following year he earned a master’s degree in information technology at the University of Colombo and began working for an IT firm in Colombo. In 1998 he emigrated to the United States and worked at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles as an IT professional. He became a U.S. citizen in 2003 and thereby lost his citizenship in Sri Lanka. In 2005 he returned to Sri Lanka to aid the presidential campaign of his brother Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Presidency Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated in the 2015 presidential election by Maithripala Sirisena, a former member of his cabinet, and a two-term limit was subsequently enacted, precluding him from running again. In 2019 Gotabaya Rajapaksa was put forward as the presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), a party founded by another brother, Basil. For many Sri Lankans wary of the Sirisena government’s ineffectiveness in addressing the In outlining his agenda to the parliament, the newly inaugurated president called for Raja...

Rajapaksa in 2019 Date July13– September2,2022 ( 2022-07-13– 2022-09-02) Duration 1month and 20days Location Sri Lanka Maldives Singapore Thailand Cause Forced removal from office due to Participants • Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former • Ioma Rajapaksa, former • Two security officials, Rajapaksa's personal security detail On 13 July 2022, following a string of mammoth protests that eventually culminated into a civilian takeover of his Rajapaksa's resignation triggered widespread celebrations amongst the Sri Lankan people, many of whom had long demanded the removal of the Amidst intensifying calls for holding him accountable for the nation's socio-economic quagmire in the wake of his resignation, Rajapaksa remained in exile within Singapore, before moving to Background [ ] Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa නන්දසේන ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ; நந்தசேன கோட்டாபய ராஜபக்ஸ), a noteworthy member of the After retiring as Permanent Secretary following Escape [ ] In the early hours of 9 July, following multiple intelligence inputs indicating that anti-government demonstrations scheduled for later that day were likely to spiral out of control, Rajapaksa and his family were hastily evacuated from the President's House by armed military units. Gajabahu, an Gajabahu, evidently implied Rajapaksa's intent to escape. After being escorted to safety within the country's territorial waters, Rajapaksa telephoned Departure [ ] Airport stand-off [ ] On 12 July, Rajapaksa, still in his capacity as the president, attempted...