evidence: The roots of the current political crisis are directly tied to the actions of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family, including his brothers former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa. Gotabaya came to power in 2019, and in 2020 his party, the Sri Lanka People's Front (SLPP), was able to consolidate its supermajority in parliament on a banner of populism and Sinhalese nationalism. By passing the 20th amendment to the constitution, Gotabaya was able to consolidate an unprecedented amount of power in the executive presidency. His dictatorial tendencies were matched by nepotism, corruption, the elevation of retired military officers into almost every sector of government, and serious accusations of human rights violations during the Sri Lankan civil war. But in the end, it was his (and his family’s) terrible governance and mismanagement of Sri Lanka’s economy, especially during the pandemic, that led to the economic crisis in the fall of 2021.