Nobel peace prize winner Juan Manuel Santos – President of Colombia

The Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, has won the Nobel peace prize for his work on a peace deal voted down in a referendum this week.

Santos and the leader of the Farc rebel group, Rodrigo Londoño, known as Timochenko, were both considered leading contenders for the prize after signing a peace deal last month to end 52 years of war.

But their chances seemed to have been dealt a fatal blow by the referendum last Sunday in which a narrow majority of 50.2% to 49.8% – a difference of fewer than 54,000 votes out of almost 13m cast – rejected the plan.

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