Following protests in Colombia by 400 Nasa, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) released Toribío Mayor Arquímedes Vitonás and Gilberto Muñoz Coronado on September 8. The Nasa demostrators, armed only with decorated sticks, marched into the southwestern jungles of Caqueta, Cauca region, on September 7 to demand the release of the two men.
"This was a humanitarian rescue staged by the indigenous community," Alfredo Acosta, coordinator of the Regional Indigenous Council in Cauca province, told Reuters.
Vitonás and Muñoz Coronado were kidnapped on August 22 with three other individuals, who were released two days before Vitonás and Muñoz. The five men were greeted by more than 1,000 people on September 12 as they entered the town of Santander de Quilichau for a meeting of the Indigenous Leaders Association of Cauca (ACIN). Muñoz Coronado spoke about the kidnappings and indigenous resistance to the decades-long civil war.
"I grew up in the jungle," Muñoz Coronado said in a press release. "During the kidnappings I felt like a prisoner in places where I'd always enjoyed liberty. We want to show Colombia, and the world, that through community-based resistance we can change the government of this country, a government which doesn't recognize us, was chosen by the few, and which currently governs with only self-interest."
The Nasa have been identified in other reports as Paez, the name given to them by Spanish conquistadors.
