TORIBIO, COLOMBIA All it took was a roar from an angry crowd and a show of hands for Carlos Ivan Silva to get a 60-year jail sentence for murder. Minutes later, four of his collaborators were sentenced to 40 years. Two minors, one of them 14 years old, were given 20 lashes in public and sent to juvenile detention.

There was no defense attorney, no chance of a plea bargain, and no mercy from the riled-up crowd in Sundays proceedings.

Indigenous groups in Colombia have the right to mete out their own justice. And the Nasa of southwestern Colombia take great pride in their community judicial system in which the entire village lays down the law.

The crimes of these seven men seemed to rattle a community long-plagued by violence. The men most in their teens are accused of being Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas who were handing out leaflets and putting up a banner in a nearby village last Wednesday.

When members of the Nasa indigenous guard an unarmed and volunteer police force tried to force them to take down the propaganda, a fight ensued and Silva killed two guard members. Rather than withdraw, however, about 30 indigenous guards and a crowd of villagers, wielding little more than sticks, pursued the guerrillas for three hours before cornering them in the mountains.

This town is often caught in the crossfire between guerrillas, the military, and criminal groups, and eight Nasa members have been murdered this year. But Wednesdays clash has the community on edge.

Olmedo Ramos, 34, is one of the coordinators of the 900-strong indigenous guard that operates in three nearby communities. After sitting through his second funeral over the weekend, he struggled to stay calm.

Theyre acting like cowards and killing us, he said of the guerrillas. We were there as civilians, only with our sticks, which are symbols of the fact that were a peaceful people, and they simply opened fire on us.

That rage seemed to have been channeled during the trial. As the seven men sat in plastic chairs with their hands tied behind their backs, the audience shouted out its judgment.

At one point, community leaders argued that the 40-year sentences for the men who didnt kill anyone might be too harsh. But the crowd roared its disapproval and quashed the motion.

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For Colombia's Nasa Indians, the village lays down the law