1 dead, 13 injured in Sri Lanka as police opens fire on protesters

Members and supporters of Sri Lanka’s opposition the National People’s Power Party march towards Colombo from Beruwala, during a protest against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, amid the country’s economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 19, 2022. (Reuters)
Explained: What led to the Sri Lanka economic crisis, and who is helping?
Anger against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s handling of a deepening economic crisis in the island nation of 22 million people spiralled into violence late on Thursday, as hundreds of protesters clashed with police for several hours. A severe shortage of foreign currency has left Rajapaksa’s government unable to pay for essential imports, including fuel, leading to debilitating power cuts lasting up to 13 hours. Ordinary Sri Lankans are also dealing with shortages and soaring inflation, after the country steeply devalued its currency last month ahead of talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan programme.
How did Sri Lanka get here?
Critics say the roots of the crisis, the worst in several decades, lie in economic mismanagement successive governments that created and sustained a twin deficit – a budget shortfall alongside a current account deficit.
“Sri Lanka is a classic twin deficits economy,” said a 2019 Asian Development Bank working paper. “Twin deficits signal that a country’s national expenditure exceeds its national income, and that its production of tradable goods and services is inadequate.”
But the current crisis was accelerated deep tax cuts promised Rajapaksa during a 2019 election campaign that were enacted months before the COVID-19pandemic, which wiped out parts of Sri Lanka’s economy.
Explained: The Rajapaksa clan in Sri Lanka politics
The Rajapaksa family, whose members include Sri Lanka’s Prime Miner and President, hails from Hambantota drict in the south. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brothers Chamal, PM Mahinda, and Basil are third-generation politicians, while the fourth generation is represented Mahinda and Chamal’s sons Namal, Yositha and Shashindra.

In South Asia, no other political dynasty has been as confidently nepotic. During Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second term as President from 2010-15, there were said to be more than 40 Rajapaksa family members in government posts, apart from the cabinet. Many of them faced enquiries for financial fraud after Mahinda’s government was voted out. Basil, who is also a US citizen, was arrested, and his wife and eldest daughter were questioned.
Under the leadership of Gotabaya and Mahinda, the Rajapaksa clan has taken charge of 11 minries. Other family members have been accommodated in the PM and President’s secretariat. At least one holds a diplomatic post as consul general in Los Angeles.