2016 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos who stopped 50-year-long civil war

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. This was announced on the official site of the Nobel Committee, reports Pravmir.

President Santos initiated the negotiations that culminated in the peace accord between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas, supporting Marx and Lenin’s ideas, and he has consistently sought to move the peace process forward. The civil war in Colombia is one of the longest civil wars in modern times and the sole remaining armed conflict in the Americas. It has cost the lives of at least 220 000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people.

It is the Norwegian Nobel Committee's firm belief that President Santos, despite the "No" majority vote in the referendum concerning the peace accord , has brought the bloody conflict significantly closer to a peaceful solution, and that much of the groundwork has been laid for both the verifiable disarmament of the FARC guerrillas and a historic process of national fraternity and reconciliation. His endeavors to promote peace thus fulfil the criteria and spirit of Alfred Nobel's will.

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