Sri Lankans stunned the world–and probably themselves–when they voted to oust a long time quasi-autocrat from power. In January, a politician named Maithripali Sirisena engineered a surprise electoral upset again Mahinda Rajapaksa, an authoritarian and probable war criminal whose family held a tight grip on power. In this episode, human rights lawyer and political scientist Kate Cronin-Furman explains how this upset occurred, what it might mean for other quasi-dictators around the world, and how this move might affect ethnic Tamils’ long quest for justice and accountability for crimes against humanity.
