Gotabaya Rajapaksa

President of Sri Lanka from 2019 to 2022

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Born 1949 · age 77

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Wikipedia
48 languages
Cross-language footprint
Age
77
Born 1949
Awards
10
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-10

He led the military campaign that ended Sri Lanka's civil war, then won the presidency on that legacy — and lost it three years later when economic collapse, food shortages, and mass protests forced him onto a military plane and into exile, the first Sri Lankan president to resign mid-term.

Biography

About

Born 20 June 1949 into a political family in Sri Lanka's Southern Province, Gotabaya Rajapaksa joined the Ceylon Army in 1971 and rose through infantry regiments, seeing combat in major offensives during the civil war and counterinsurgency operations against the JVP insurrection. Appointed Defence Secretary in 2005 under his brother President Mahinda Rajapaksa, he oversaw the 2009 military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, surviving a Tamil Tiger assassination attempt in 2006. After stepping down in 2015, he returned to run for president in 2019 on a nationalistic, security-heavy…

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