Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo OP (born 1944), better known as Frei Betto,[1] is a Brazilian writer, political activist, philosopher, liberation theologian, and Dominican friar.

[6] As a liberation theologian,[7] Frei Betto has been involved in various international efforts in order to support an understanding between Marxism and Christianity.

[8][9] During Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika, Frei Betto was also involved in various efforts aimed at an understanding between leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, such efforts being described in the form of a travelogue published by him in 1993 in Portuguese, Lost Paradise, which the author dedicates to a certain Theophilus ("God's friend"), apparently the same as the mysterious addressee of the Gospel of Luke, which should be understood as a symbol of all Christians.

The reason given by Irina Bokova, its Director General, was "his exceptional contribution to building a universal culture of peace, social justice and human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean".

The prize was awarded on 28 January in Havana, Cuba, at the Third International Conference on World Balance, being held to mark the 160th anniversary of José Martí's birth.