On April 1996 in South Africa, Nelson Mandela told Juan Manuel Santos: “Without peace, Colombia cannot take off”. Ever since, and for twenty years – as a journalist, minister and finally as president of Colombia – he set out to find peace in his country and to create proper conditions to make this possible. 

Santos led the process of dialogue with the guerrilla group “FARC” and in November of 2016 he achieved a peace agreement that allowed the demobilization and disarmament of this guerrilla. He not only faced the challenges of promoting dialogue with adversaries that had fought against the state for over decades, but also the fierce opposition by his contradictory politicians. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his perseverance in this endeavour.

Nowadays, the peace process in Colombia is studied as a model that teaches valuable lessons for the resolution of other conflicts that still subsist in the world.