Colombian president calls for fast implementation of peace deal

Colombian President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos said Friday that implementing the newly signed peace agreement as soon as possible is very important as people might lose faith otherwise.

The most important challenge from now on is to "be able to implement the agreement as soon as possible," Santos told a press conference in Oslo on the eve of the prize ceremony.

The Colombian president said he hopes that next Monday the constitutional court will give the green light to a fast-track procedure in order to be able to implement the peace agreement even faster.

"This is a very key aspect," Santos said. "We need to shorten the time between the moment you sign and the moment you implement. That is why the fast-track procedure is so important."

"You cannot allow too much time between one and other because people lose confidence, people lose faith, and people want to see results very soon," he said.

Santos also said that the Nobel Peace Prize "came like a gift from heaven because it gave us a tremendous push" for the peace process.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Oct. 7 that Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his resolute efforts to bring his country's five-decade-long civil war to an end.

The announcement came just four days after a peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest rebel group, was narrowly rejected in a referendum.

However, Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londono signed a revised peace agreement in November, in efforts to end the country's half-century conflict, which has left 220,000 people dead, and millions of people homeless.

Both houses of the Colombian Congress have ratified the revised peace agreement. Endit