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![Santos bypassed taking the renegotiated deal to a popular referendum this time [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/261339001_8-e1481469298983.jpg)
Santos bypassed taking the renegotiated deal to a popular referendum this time [Xinhua]
He hailed the award as a “gift from heaven”, dedicating it to all Colombians, particularly the 220,000 killed and eight million displaced by the prolonged war.
He flew to Oslo for the ceremony where he received his gold medal, diploma and a check for around $870,000, a prize had previously said he would donate to the victims of the conflict.
“The Colombian peace agreement is a ray of hope in a world troubled by so many conflicts and so much intolerance,” Santos said in his acceptance speech.
After four years of critical negotiations, Congress finally approved Santos’s pact with the rebels on November 30.
Pushing the deal through Congress allowed the government to bypass voters who, just a few weeks prior, narrowly rejected an earlier version of the deal.
Many thought the rejection would jeopardize Santos’s chances of a Nobel win.
Deputy Chairwoman of the Nobel Committee Berit Reiss-Andersen said they “saw things differently.”
“In our view there was no time to lose. The peace process was in danger of collapsing and needed all international support it could get,” she said while presenting Santos.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
