Peace Laureate: Nobel Was 'Gift From Heaven'

Colombia's Santos says it gave him the momentum to close crumbling peace deal with FARC
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 10, 2016 7:21 AM CST
Peace Laureate: Nobel Was 'Gift From Heaven'
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, speaks after accepting the Inter-American Dialogue's Leadership for the Americas Award at the institution's annual gala dinner in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, saying it gave a boost to the "impossible dream" of ending his country's half-century-long civil war. In his acceptance speech, Santos described the award as a "gift from heaven" and dedicated it to all Colombians, reports the AP, particularly the 220,000 killed and 8 million displaced in the longest-running conflict in the Western Hemisphere. "With this agreement, we can say that the American continent—from Alaska to Patagonia—is a land in peace," the president said in Oslo's City Hall.

Santos reached a historic peace deal with rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia earlier this year. But the initial deal was narrowly rejected by Colombian voters in a shock referendum result just days before the Nobel Peace Prize announcement in October. Many believed that ruled out Santos from winning this year's prize, but the Norwegian Nobel Committee "saw things differently," deputy chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said. "In our view there was no time to lose," she said in her presentation speech. "The peace process was in danger of collapsing and needed all international support it could get." "It's very fair to say that it was a gift from heaven, and it gave me a great push," said Santos in an interview Friday, per the BBC. A revised deal was approved by Colombia's Congress last week. (More Nobel Peace Prize stories.)

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