Colombia’s Santos accepts Nobel Prize as ‘gift from heaven’

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, centre, speaks with, from 2nd left to right, Colombian First Lady Maria Clemencia Rodriguez, deputy chair of the Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen and director of the Nobel Institute, Olav Njolstad, prior of the dinner hosted by the Norwegian Nobel Committee at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, Friday Dec. 9, 2016. President Juan Manuel Santos is awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring peace to Colombia and an end to its civil war. (Terje Bendiksby / NTB Scanpix POOL via AP) Nobel Peace Prize laureate Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, centre, speaks with, from 2nd left to right, Colombian First Lady Maria Clemencia Rodriguez, deputy chair of the Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen and director of the Nobel Institute, Olav Njolstad, prior of the dinner hosted by the Norwegian Nobel Committee at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, Friday Dec. 9, 2016. President Juan Manuel Santos is awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring peace to Colombia and an end to its civil war. (Terje Bendiksby / NTB Scanpix POOL via AP)

By Associated Press December 10, 2016 1 min read

STOCKHOLM (AP) – 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, 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.