BOGOTA - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday, is a son of a powerful family who staked his legacy on troubled efforts to make peace with the communist FARC rebels. The 65-year-old Santos, a career politician, led a major offensive against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as defense minister from 2006 to 2009. Santos said receiving the Nobel Prize would be "a great stimulus" for efforts to achieve peace. Santos "made war as a means to achieve peace," Santos's brother-in-law and adviser, Mauricio Rodriguez, told AFP recently. - 'Extreme center' politician -Santos was born in August 1951 in Bogota into a rich, powerful family entrenched in Colombian politics and the media.

Source: Bangkok Post October 07, 2016 15:33 UTC