A letter signed by 19 international personalities including Nobel laureates and ex-presidents voiced collective support of Colombia’s ongoing peace talks between the government and the rebel group FARC.
The letter released to Colombian media Wednesday stated that “despite the difficulties that confront the negotiators in Havana, Cuba, peace is possible.”
“We are sure that the love for the country and its future will allow [Colombia] to find just and fair solutions in order to resolve their differences, reunite Colombia into one family, and offer to their children the future that they deserve,” read the letter.
Those who signed the message of support included former president of Portugal, Mario Soares; former president of France, Jacques Chirac; and former president of Cape Verde, Pedro de Verona Rodrigues Pires. Two Nobel Peace Prize winners also put their names down: activist Desmond Tutu of South Africa and activist Adolfo Perez Esquivel of Argentina.
“Now is the hour of wise and brave options! Peace will arrives soon to Colombians. Because of this, the whole world yearns [for Colombia] to reach a sign of hope for all. We know that this dialogue is not easy,” read the letter.
Leaders from the United States and the United Kingdom have also come out supporting Colombia’s peace talks.
MORE: Colombia peace talks should be inspired by Mandela: John Kerry
MORE: Blair praises Santos for ‘leadership and determination’ in Colombia peace talks
The additional signers included:
- Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio
- Massimo D’Alema, former Italian Prime Minister
- Federico Mayor Saragoza, former Secretary General of UNESCO from Spain
- Michel Camdessus, former director of the International Monetary Fund from France
- Lucia Topolansky Saavedra, Senator from Uruguay and wife of current Uruguay president Jose Mujica
- Óscar Andrés Santamaría, government negotiator for El Salvador in peace process with guerrilla coalition FMLN
- Franco Frattini, former Italian Minister of Foreign Relations
- Jordi Pujol, former president of the Generalitat de Catalunya from Spain
- Luis Felipe Bravo Mena, former ambassador from Mexico to the Vatican
- Luis Álvarez Álvarez, former government negotiator for Mexico in peace talks with leftist guerrilla group, EZLN
- Valentina Alazraki, Vatican Reporter from Mexico; Manuel Castells, Spanish sociologist
- Carolina Toha, Mayor of Santiago, Chile; and Donato Di Santo, former Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Italy