A group of female marchers grabbed Choquehuanca and led him marching down the highway in an effort to circumvent the police blockade.[9] At the police blockade, a tense standoff escalated into a brief confrontation, but the marchers succeeded in passing the police line.[10] Several government officials, including Minister of Interior Sacha Llorenti and Minister of Transparency Nardi Suxo, said that this was a "kidnapping" (secuestro), but Choquehuanca steadfastly refused to label it as such saying that "the sisters and [female] comrades grabbed me, surely they had thought that they would pass that police encirclement with the Chancellor; I was not insulted, nor mistreated, but yes, they obliged me to walk."[11] La Paz Prosecutor Patricia Santos, who was investigating the events, received Choquehuanca's testimony to this effect on 21 November.[12] In February 2012, the Prosecutor's Office subpoenaed twenty-six leaders of the indigenous movement and its allies to testify in an investigation of the incident as an alleged homicide.[13] Former human rights ombudsman Waldo Albarracín has described the charges of kidnapping and attempted homicide as without merit.[14]