Nobel Peace Laureate 2016, Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia, won the award “for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end”.
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón is the 32nd and current President of Colombia and sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. An economist by profession and a journalist by trade, on 20 June 2010, after two rounds of voting in the Presidential election, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón was officially elected as President of Colombia and was inaugurated on 7 August 2010 in the midst of a diplomatic crisis with Venezuela, which was quickly resolved. 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 could 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. The fact that a majority of the voters said no to the peace accord does not necessarily mean that the peace process is dead. The referendum was not a vote for or against peace. What the “No” side rejected was not the desire for peace, but a specific peace agreement. The Norwegian Nobel Committee emphasizes the importance of the fact that President Santos is now inviting all parties to participate in a broad-based national dialogue aimed at advancing the peace process. The renewed deal between the government and the FARC was approved by the Colombian Congress on the 30.11.2016 ending 52 years of war.
5 famous and inspiring quotes:
- A Colombia without coca and without conflict was an impossible dream just a few years or decades ago, and today I can tell you it is a real possibility. Just imagine it. We have already begun discussion of the last two substantive points: victims and the end of the conflict.
- Today, we must acknowledge, that war has not been won.
- Good friends don’t have to visit each other every day.
- We will not fail, the time for peace has arrived.
- Tomorrow will be a great day! We will work for a Colombia that is at peace, a dream starts to be reality.
