--- description: Juan Manuel Santos is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Ingrid Betancourt wrote about the President of Colombia. title: Juan Manuel Santos by Ingrid Betancourt: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt777fff94e13ec65e/6988c349bc6cfc799d3e0efd/time-100-2017-juan-manuel-santos.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 19, 2017 # Juan Manuel Santos by Ingrid Betancourt  Nobel Peace Prize laureate Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize concert on December 11, 2016 in Oslo, Norway. / AFP / NTB Scanpix / Vegard Wivestad GROTT (Photo credit should read VEGARD WIVESTAD GROTT/AFP/Getty Images) Nobel Peace Prize laureate Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize concert on December 11, 2016 in Oslo, Norway. / AFP / NTB Scanpix / Vegard Wivestad GROTT (Photo credit should read VEGARD WIVESTAD GROTT/AFP/Getty Images)Photograph by Vegard Wivestad Grott—AFP/Getty Images I first met Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in 1992 when he was Minister of Trade. Appointed as his adviser, I soon realized that he had set himself up to an impossible mission. While Colombia was waging a dire war against the drug cartels, Santos was looking beyond. Amid death, corruption and political divisions, I remember him saying, “We need to add, not subtract.” This could well be the parable of his life. Throughout his career, he carefully avoided graduating his adversaries into enemies—and his enemies into bitter foes. Years later, when then Defense Minister Santos greeted me back to freedom in 2008, he was not only inflicting major defeats on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) but also winning their respect. Last year Santos received the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an end to the Colombian government’s 50-year war with FARC. And while I watched him accept it, I remembered the words he said to me back in 1992\. Indeed he had been adding—bringing together friends and enemies to achieve what once seemed impossible: peace. I pray that we in Colombia will live up to his legacy. _Betancourt is an author, activist and former presidential candidate held hostage by FARC for six years_ Juan Manuel Santos by Ingrid Betancourt: TIME 100 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736328/juan-manuel-santos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736328/juan-manuel-santos/"},"headline":"Juan Manuel Santos","datePublished":"2017-04-19T17:55:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:01.014Z","description":"Juan Manuel Santos is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Ingrid Betancourt wrote about the President of Colombia.","url":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736328/juan-manuel-santos/","keywords":["TIME 100"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt777fff94e13ec65e/6988c349bc6cfc799d3e0efd/time-100-2017-juan-manuel-santos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt777fff94e13ec65e/6988c349bc6cfc799d3e0efd/time-100-2017-juan-manuel-santos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736328/juan-manuel-santos/","name":"Juan Manuel Santos"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See All the TIME 100 Honorees in One Minute","description":"The TIME 100 honorees include actors, musicians, politicians, business leaders, activists and scientists, and together make a portrait of influence in 2017.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zZCdrcRA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-04-20T10:30:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zZCdrcRA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736328/juan-manuel-santos/","duration":"PT56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736328/juan-manuel-santos/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```