Committee acknowledges his ‘resolute’ effort to end the five decade-long conflict, hopes the award will boost his chances of achieving the goal
Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos delivers a speech next to his wife Maria Clemencia Rodriguez after winning the Nobel Peace Prize 2016 on Friday at Casa de Narino. Pic/AFP
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Oslo: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday for his “resolute” efforts to end more than five decades of war in his country, despite voters’ shock rejection of a historic peace deal.
The award came as a surprise after voters rejected the terms of a historic deal Santos reached last month with FARC rebel chief Rodrigo Londono, alias Timoleon “Timochenko” Jimenez, after nearly four years of talks.
“The Norwegian Nobel committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end,” said committee chairwoman Kaci Kullmann Five.
The deal, which was signed on September 26, was supposed to be ratified following an October 2 referendum but in a shock development, voters shot down the agreement, leaving the country’s future hanging in the balance.
The announcement caught most Nobel watchers off-guard, with most experts saying that the referendum had torpedoed Colombia’s chances of winning.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the aim was to encourage peace efforts in the war-torn country, which are now in “real danger” of collapse.
The Colombia conflict has killed more than 260,000 people and left 45,000 missing over five decades, drawing in several leftist guerrilla groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.
The committee said the award was also “a tribute to the Colombian people” who had not given up hope of a just peace as well as to the families of the “countless victims” of the war.
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