Colombia: Santos awarded Nobel Peace Prize

From the press release:

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, a war that has cost the lives of at least 220 000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people. The award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have not given up hope of a just peace, and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process. This tribute is paid, not least, to the representatives of the countless victims of the civil war.

Interesting wording: “and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process.” Makes you wonder if Castro and Timochenko would have been awarded along with Santos, had the “yes” vote won the Sunday referendum,

Asked why the committee had not extended the award to other parties to the negotiation, notably the FARC commander in chief, Timoleón Jiménez, Ms. Kullmann Five said the committee never commented on those who did not receive the award.

But she said that there “are strong reasons to put a light on the president himself,” and that “his role as president” and “the keeper of the process” had been instrumental is securing a deal.

Santos convinced the Norwegians. He just didn’t convince his own people.

Why is that?

In brief, Santos did not keep his promises.

As you may recall, Santos started the negotiations secretly in Cuba, and the agreement he and Timochenko signed essentially gave the FARC everything the FARC wanted, as Plinio Apuleyo pointed out:

[Amnesty] regardless of the atrocities they carried out for over 50 years; they’ll effectively be awarded 26 seats in Congress, 31 radio stations, a TV channel, a bountiful budget to propagate their ideology and will occupy vast regions of the country absent of Public [law enforcement] Forces, areas which effectively will become small independent states where they can spread their socialist project.

This would have turned the Marxist narco-terrorist FARC- whose crimes include the recruitment of thousands of child soldiers, kidnappings, mass rapes, forced abortions, massacres of villages, political executions, and bombings – into a political power.

Additionally, under the agreement Colombia would have to finance and host an extra-national tribunal not subject to Colombia’s Constitution, and whose decisions would be exempt from appeals, while Santos has continued to expand his power through decrees.

Make no mistake, the Nobel is indeed a boost to Santos

“There is a real danger that the peace process will come to a halt and that civil war will flare up again. This makes it even more important that the parties … continue to respect the ceasefire,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

The Nobel Committee ignore the fact that the FARC would not have agreed to talks had they been winning.

But then, the Peace Prize was awarded to Yasser Arafat, too.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

UPDATE
Austin Bay:

Pompous Norwegians have bestowed the Nobel Peace Prize on Juan Manuel Santos, a failed Colombian president who negotiated a flawed peace deal Colombia’s citizens rejected. Let’s agree that Colombia’s dirty war stained everyone. Former President Alvaro Uribe is a stained man, but Uribe is the leader who defeated the Communist rebels. He and the Colombian military created the military and political conditions that brought the rebels to the table. Santos didn’t. Why didn’t the Nobel committee give the prize to both Santos and Uribe? Oh, right. Santos is a socialist. Uribe is a conservative. Giving the award to Santos shows the peace prize is a joke.

I wouldn’t call Santos a Socialist, but he definitely was willing to have dictator Raúl Castro host the negotiations.