Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka, whose resignation was expected on Wednesday July 13, will have finally succeeded in fleeing the country, before leaving office. This is not, however, the end of the crisis in Sri Lanka, where a state of emergency was declared as soon as Antonov left for the Maldives. While the great popular protest movement, organized on Saturday, led to the invasion of the presidential palace and other places of power in Colombo in scenes of jubilation, pushing the head of state to flee to a secret place, the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinga – whose crowd is also calling for his departure – clung to it on Wednesday.
It was from his office that the state of emergency was announced in the morning, threatening to put an abrupt end to the good-natured climate that had reigned so far in Colombo since the weekend. A police official promised, in a statement to Agence France-Presse (AFP), measures to “repress demonstrations that disrupt the functioning of the state”. In the streets of Colombo, tension was mounting, with waves of demonstrators remaining determined to prevent the prime minister from taking over as interim president, even if the Constitution allows him to do so.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, nicknamed “Terminator”, took off from Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo early Wednesday morning aboard an Antonov An-32, accompanied by his wife. The Sri Lankan Air Force said it provided an aircraft at the request of the government to take “the president, his wife and two security officials in the Maldives”.
Population pushed to the limit
The ex-strongman of Sri Lanka fled under the pressure of a population pushed to the limit by months of deprivation. The mob had broken through the police barricades and invaded the palace and the office of the president, then the official residence of the prime minister. Since then, rumors of a flight abroad had continued to circulate. Since March, protesters have been demanding the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his camp, who have dominated the country’s political life for nearly two decades, holding them responsible for the serious economic crisis affecting the island of 22 million people. ‘inhabitants. Sri Lankans are forced to live to the rhythm of shortages of electricity, fuel, medicine, but also food. The United Nations estimates that 80% of the population skips meals.
At the time of his flight, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, having not yet officially left power, still enjoyed presidential immunity. “He wants to leave before he resigns, but he should go to prison for corruption”, said Tuesday, Udara Nanayakkra, taxi driver and supporter of the protest movement. The demonstrators accuse the Rajapaksa clan of having emptied the coffers of the country. When he hastily fled his residence on Saturday, the Sri Lankan president left behind 17.85 million rupees, or about 49,000 euros in cash, which the demonstrators handed over to the police.
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