Santos has promised to revive a peace plan even though Colombians, in a referendum on Sunday, narrowly rejected the accord. Many voters reckoned it was too lenient on the Farc guerrillas.
The message is that we have to persevere and reach the end of this war. We are very, very close, we just need to push a bit further
“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.
In an interview with the Nobel Foundation, Santos said that the award was a “great stimulus” in the quest for peace. “The message is that we have to persevere and reach the end of this war. We are very, very close, we just need to push a bit further,” Santos was quoted as saying.
Santos and Timochenko come from different worlds: one a rich businessman and politician; the other a country boy turned Marxist guerrilla leader.
Santos, 65, led a major offensive against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) as defence minister from 2006 to 2009.