Following widespread protests against his management of a catastrophic economic crisis, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa left the nation on Wednesday, hours before he was scheduled to resign.
According to a statement from the Sri Lankan Air Force, Rajapaksa, his wife, and two bodyguards boarded a plane and departed from the primary international airport close to Colombo.
Rajapaksa was reportedly in Male, the capital of the Maldives, according to a government source and a close friend of his. From there, the official source predicted that the president would travel to another Asian nation.
The president’s flight brings an end to the rule of the powerful Rajapaksa clan that has dominated politics in the South Asian nation for the last two decades.
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Protests against the economic crisis have simmered for months and came to a head last weekend when hundreds of thousands of people took over key government buildings in Colombo, blaming the Rajapaksas and their allies for runaway inflation, corruption and a severe lack of fuel and medicines.
As news of the president’s flight spread, thousands of people gathered at the main protest site in Colombo chanting “Gota thief, Gota thief”, referring to him by a nickname.
Government sources and aides said the president’s brothers, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, were still in Sri Lanka.
Rajapaksa was due to step down as president on Wednesday to make way for a unity government after protesters stormed his and the prime minister’s official residences.
The president has not been seen in public since Friday.
That would make Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe the acting president, although he has also offered to resign. If he does, the speaker will be the acting president until a new president is elected, as per the constitution.
A statement from protests leaders, however, has warned of a “decisive fight” if Wickremesinghe does not resign by Wednesday afternoon.
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The U.S. Embassy in Colombo, which is in the central district of the city, said it was cancelling consular services for the afternoon and for Thursday as a precautionary measure.
The Rajapaksas implemented populist tax cuts in 2019 that affected government finances while shrinking foreign reserves curtailed imports of fuel, food and medicines.
Petrol has been severely rationed and long lines have formed in front of shops selling cooking gas. Headline inflation hit 54.6% last month and the central bank has warned that it could rise to 70% in coming months.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president’s elder brother, resigned as prime minister in May after protests against the family turned violent. He remained in hiding at a military base in the east of the country for some days before returning to Colombo.