UNP Media Never Issued a Press Statement To Non-Existent Posts of Ranil Leaving for Venezuela!

Information has been circulating on social media claiming that the United National Party (UNP) media unit issued a statement regarding news that Ranil Wickremesinghe had left Sri Lanka to take over the Presidency of Venezuela. The circulating post suggested that the UNP media unit had declared this news to be false.

Social Media Posts:

On January 5, 2026, social media posts claimed that the UNP media unit released a statement clarifying that the viral posts of Ranil Wickremesinghe leaving for Venezuela to assume their presidency were fake.

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While many had assumed these claims to be satirical some had condemned the UNP media division for issuing such clarifications, as seen below.

Below are some other instances of the same post getting shared among Tamil users.

Fact Check

To determine the truth behind this claim, we first did a keyword search on the viral posts to check whether such posts of the former Sri Lankan president leaving for Venezuela were shared on social media circles, even with a satirical notion. However, we did not come across any such posts.

Therefore, it is highly unlikely that UNP media issuing any statement to nonexistent posts and if they had issued such a clarification, it would have been covered by mainstream news outlets; however, no such reports were found.

Official Channels:

A review of the official website and Facebook pages of the United National Party, along with its archives, confirmed that no such statement or announcement had been published either,

Direct Verification:

When Fact Crescendo contacted the UNP Media Unit, they confirmed that it was fake information and that no such announcement had ever been issued by UNP media or social media teams and is a smear campaign against the former president,

Conclusion

Therefore, UNP Media Division had never issued a statement denying social media reports of former president Ranil Wickremesinghe leaving Sri Lanka to assume the presidency of Venezuela, the alleged social media posts of Ranil Wickremasinghe making such a move were non-existent as well.