Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize 2016 for his efforts to end a five-decades-long civil war that has killed more than 200,000 people in the South American country.
The Nobel Peace Prize 2016 was awarded to Juan Manuel Santos:
“for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end”.
President Santos initiated the negotiations that culminated in the peace accord between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas, and he has consistently sought to move the peace process forward. Well knowing that the accord was controversial, he was instrumental in ensuring that Colombian voters were able to voice their opinion concerning the peace accord in a referendum.
The outcome of the vote was not what President Santos wanted: a narrow majority of the over 13 million Colombians who cast their ballots said no to the accord. This result has created great uncertainty as to the future of Colombia. There is a real danger that the peace process will come to a halt and that civil war will flare up again.
This makes it even more important that the parties, headed by President Santos and FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londoño, continue to respect the ceasefire.