The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. The Norwegian Nobel Committee considered an all-time high of 376 nominations for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
On Friday, the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 was awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. He will receive 8 million Swedish krona (860,000 euros/930,000 dollars).
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to encourage all those who are striving to achieve peace, reconciliation and justice in Colombia,” the committee announced.
Santos and his FARC counterpart, Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londono Echeverri, have scrambled to save their hard-fought peace accord after opposition forces successfully lobbied for its defeat in a referendum on Sunday. A ceasefire stands, but Santos, who has staked his legacy to making peace, warned that Colombia finds itself in a “very dangerous limbo.”
“The civil war in Colombia is one of the longest civil wars of all time and the sole remaining armed conflict in the Americas,” the committee reminded his political opponents.
Speculation about who would win abounded ahead of the announcement.
The Nobel Prizes for chemistry, physics and medicine were announced earlier in the week.
mkg/kl (Reuters, AFP, dpa)
