Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos awarded 2016 Nobel Peace Prize

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, winner of 2016 Nobel Peace Prize
(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images))

On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos "for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end." Santos put the peace accord with the FARC guerrilla group up to a popular vote, and in a shocking upset, the voters narrowly rejected the deal. "The outcome of the vote was not what President Santos wanted," the Nobel Committee said, but the result "does not necessarily mean that the peace process is dead." Santos "has brought the bloody conflict significantly closer to a peaceful solution," the committee said, and his "endeavors to promote peace thus fulfill the criteria and spirit of Alfred Nobel's will."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.