Latin America & Caribbean
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize in a bittersweet victory after Colombians voted "No" to an agreement he signed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to end over five decades of war.
President Santos was awarded Peace Prize “for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end,” according to a statement released by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
“The award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have not given up hope of a just peace, and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process,” added the statement.
Santos was not told in advance that he would be the recipient of this year's peace prize. Olav Njoelstad, secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said spoke to the Colombian president by phone to give him the good news.
"He was overwhelmed. He was very grateful. He said it was of invaluable importance to further the peace process in Colombia," Olav Njoelstad told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK.
“The only prize we strive for is peace with social justice for Colombia,” said the FARC leader on his Twitter account after the announcement.
The one-sided prize echoes previous awards, such as to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in 2000 for his work for reconciliation with North Korea. West German Chancellor Willy Brandt won in 1971 for his policies of reaching out to the communist East.
But often the awards go to both sides in peace negotiations, such as to Israelis and Palestinians in 1994 or to Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin in 1978.
Peace talks with the FARC began in 2012, carried out in Havana. Four years later, the two parties reached an accord to end a conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people since it began in 1964.
A bilateral ceasefire and end to hostilities were signed in June 2016, with the complete peace accord published in August.
The "No" vote was a disaster for Santos, who had hoped to turn his focus quickly to other matters, analysts partially attribute the defeat of the plebiscite to Santos' unpopularity.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth US$930,000, will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10.
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