OSLO: In the absence of rock icon Bob Dylan, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will be the star of Saturday’s Nobel ceremonies when he receives his Peace Prize in Oslo, crowning an achievement that came close to failing at the finish line.
After a first peace deal rejected by the Colombian people, Santos’s government and the Marxist FARC rebels renegotiated a new peace accord that was signed on November 24 to end a five-decade conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people, left 45,000 missing and forced nearly seven million to flee their homes.
“Something that was for many Colombians and for many Latin-Americans and for the world an impossible dream just a few years ago is now reality,” Santos told reporters in the Norwegian capital on the eve of the prize ceremony.
