Colombian President awarded Nobel Peace Prize
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the country’s 52-year civil war with the revolutionary FARC rebels.
According to the Nobel Committee, Santos was given the award “for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end.”
The peace deal was however narrowly rejected in a nationwide referendum last weekend by Colombian voters, throwing into doubt the chances of the Colombian president winning the award.
Santos and the FARC leader, known as Timochenko, had signed the peace deal on September 26 with much fanfare, flanked by officials from around the world, as well as members of the rebel group.
Although the fate of the peace deal is uncertain, negotiators representing the government and FARC are meeting in Havana to discuss a way forward.
Santos is the second Colombian to win a Nobel Prize after Gabriel Garcia Marquez was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982.
