Another prize for peacemaker Juan Manuel Santos

Juan Manuel Santos, who served two terms as president of Colombia and earned the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for ending 50 years of civil war in his country, returned to his alma mater Sept. 20 to accept the 2022 Dole Leadership Prize from the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics.

In honoring Santos, the institute fulfilled the wishes of the late Sen. Bob Dole, ’45, who recommended Santos for the award (Dole died Dec. 5, 2021, at 98). Santos, b’73, who met Dole several times through the years, said the senator’s endorsement enhanced the honor. “That is something I will keep in my heart until the end of my life,” he said.

The award presentation featured a conversation between Santos and institute director Audrey McKenna Coleman, c’01, g’05. Santos also answered questions from the audience and signed copies of his book, The Battle for Peace: The Long Road to Ending a War with the World’s Oldest Guerilla Army, published in April 2021 by the University Press of Kansas (“‘Forgiveness is Infinite,’” issue No. 2, 2021).

The Leadership Prize, presented annually to an individual who demonstrates the importance of involvement in political and civic affairs, is the third honor Santos has received from KU. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences in 2012, and in 2017 he received a KU honorary doctorate of humane letters for bringing peace to Colombia.

Santos, who chose KU for college at the urging of his older brother, Luis, j’70, studied economics and business on the Hill and earned graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and Harvard University. He began his career as a journalist at El Tiempo, the Colombian newspaper long owned by his family, before serving as minister of trade and minister of defense and ultimately leading his country as president from 2010 to 2018.

Six of his predecessors tried and failed to end the decades-long war with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), but Santos succeeded in bringing perpetrators and victims together through arduous negotiations, which he said were inspired by his visit years earlier to South Africa to meet with President Nelson Mandela. Santos recalled seeing film of the negotiations that had ended apartheid, and the counsel he received from Mandela. “He explained to me the purpose of bringing victims and perpetrators together and how important it was to heal the wounds,” Santos recalled. “He said, ‘The most powerful weapon is to sit down and talk.’” What had been scheduled as a 15-minute visit stretched to four hours, and Santos left the meeting determined to follow Mandela’s example and work for peace in Colombia.