Last month President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was removed by protesting Sri Lankans fed up with dynastic rule and its attendant mismanagement. This article by Mujib Mashal and Emily Schmall published by The New York Times explores how. Here is an excerpt:

The president was cornered, his back to the sea.

Inside the dimly lit colonial mansion he had found lonely, Gotabaya Rajapaksa watched from a hastily arranged operations room as the monthslong protests demanding his ouster as Sri Lanka’s leader reached his very doorstep.

A former defense chief accused of widespread abuses during the South Asian nation’s three-decade civil war, Mr. Rajapaksa had taken an uncharacteristically hands-off approach toward the demonstrations. The message: He could withstand dissent.

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