BOGOTA -- Driven by the recent execution of four hostages who had been held by rebels for more than a decade, tens of thousands of Colombians took to the streets Tuesday to demand an end to kidnapping and guerrilla violence.

The marches came as the nation has made huge strides in security, and activists worry that hostages are no longer part of the national discourse.

“We’ve been working to keep society from forgetting about them,” said Olga Lucía Gómez, the director of País Libre, an anti-kidnapping foundation that was started in 1996. Previous calls to march have been ignored, she said, “but right now the country is indignant and hurt and that’s when people move.”

The fate of the nation’s hostages has been on the national psyche since Nov. 26. That’s when three police officers and one solider — all of whom had been in captivity for more than 12 years — were executed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as the military moved in.

Police Sgt. Luís Alberto Erazo managed to escape amid the confusion. As he recovered in a Bogotá hospital, he said many hostages feel forgotten.

It’s as if “Colombia doesn’t really believe there are people who are kidnapped,” he said soon after his release. “There’s apathy and indifference. …The mothers and sons of the kidnapped are the only ones who seem to care.”

That wasn’t the case on Tuesday, as thousands of people marched in Colombia’s principal cities, waving anti-FARC slogans, and placards of the faces of the missing.

“It’s our duty as citizens to show solidarity with all the kidnapped victims,” said Claudia Chaves, 59, a psychologist who braved the rain to march in downtown Bogotá. “I have been thinking about the hostages during this whole walk and they are like family to members to me.”

The government says there have been 146 kidnappings in the first five months of this year — that’s up 40 percent versus the same period in 2010. But it’s a far cry from a decade ago, when Colombia was the kidnap capital of the world. In 2000, more than 3,500 people were taken hostage.

But the number of people still in captivity is a matter of debate.

In 2009, the department within the Ministry of Defense that tracks kidnapping cases said it had combed through more than 2,000 reports and determined that were 125 people still in captivity. Human rights groups and researchers at the time balked and accused the government of playing politics with the statistics. País Libre said the new administration has agreed to let it look through the reports again to come up with fresh figures.

“There are no reliable numbers but we are not talking dozens, we are talking hundreds of people,” Gómez said.

Among the highest profile victims are 11 police and military officers being held by the FARC, some of them since 1998. The rebels consider them prisoners of war and have asked the government to swap them for jailed guerrilla members.

President Juan Manuel Santos has said that negotiating with the guerrillas — which his administration and the United States consider terrorist organizations — is not out of the question, but that releasing the hostages is a prerequisite to talks.

Tuesday’s marches come as the government has had the FARC on the run. On Nov. 4, the military surrounded and killed the guerrilla group’s top leader Alfonso Cano. The following the day the rebels named a replacement, but authorities said Cano’s death has been a demoralizing blow. Since then, more than 120 guerrillas, including 100 FARC members, have defected, Minister of Defense Juan Carlos Pinzón said in a statement.

Founded in 1964 with Marxist underpinnings, the FARC is thought to have about 9,000 members. The group has increasingly turned to drug-dealing, kidnapping and extortion to finance its survival.

Even so, the FARC’s ruling secretariat is sensitive to the country’s mood, National Police Commander Gen. Oscar Naranjo said. Citing military intelligence, he said FARC leaders have become “tremendously worried and very anxious” when Colombians march to show their rejection.

Juan David Caycedo, 18, said he was marching in downtown Bogotá in hopes that those being held in the jungle might hear about the protest.

“It doesn’t cost us anything to be out here, and the people who are kidnapped need to know we haven’t forgotten about them,” he said. “We want all the hostages back home — hopefully by Christmas.”