Benito Salas Vargas was a military and social leader during Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

's (then known as New Granada

United Provinces of New Granada

The United Provinces of New Granada was a country in South America from 1811 to 1816, a period known in Colombian history as the Patria Boba. It was formed from areas of the New Kingdom of Granada. The government was a federation with a parliamentary system, consisting of a weak executive and...

) independence war (1810–1819). He fought against Pablo Morillo

Pablo Morillo

Pablo Morillo y Morillo, Count of Cartagena and Marquess of La Puerta, aka El Pacificador was a Spanish general....

 during the Spanish reconquest of New Granada. In 1811 he joined the forces of Brigadier

Brigadier

Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....

 Jose Diaz, as part of the army of the United Provinces of New Granada commanded by General Antonio Baraya. On December 8, 1812, in Timana

Timana

Timana is a town and municipality in the Huila Department, Colombia....

, he swore recognition to the Congress of the United Provinces. He fought with the troops of Antonio Nariño

Antonio Nariño

Antonio de la Santísima Concepción Nariño y Álvarez was an ideological Colombian precursor and one of the early political and military leaders of the independence movement in the New Granada - Early political activity :Nariño was born to an aristocratic family...

. The 29th of June, 1816, he fought in the battle of Cuchilla del Tambo where the patriot troops

Patriot (Spanish American Revolution)

Patriots was the name the peoples of the Spanish America, who rebelled against Spanish control during the Spanish American wars of independence, called themselves. They supported the principles of the Age of Enlightenment and sought to replace the existing governing structures with Juntas...

 were defeated by the royalist commanded by Juan José de Sámano y Uribarri

Juan José de Sámano y Uribarri

Juan José Francisco de Sámano y Uribarri de Rebollar y Mazorra , was a Spanish military officer and viceroy of New Granada from 1818 to 1819, during the war of independence.-Military career:...

. On July 10, 1816, Salas was made prisoner.

In September 1816, by order of the Purificación

Purificación, Tolima

Purificación is a town and municipality in the Tolima department of Colombia....

 Tribunal, Salas was executed in Neiva's main square, where his hands and head were exhibited. His head was buried in the terrain which would later become La Manguita Hacienda

Hacienda

Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even business factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities...

. In 1936, the Colombian government inaugurated Neiva's airport in the hacienda, and renamed it in 1986 as the Benito Salas Airport

Benito Salas Airport

Benito Salas Airport is an airport that serves the city of Neiva, the capital of the Huila Department in Colombia. It was named after Benito Salas Vargas, a military and social leader during Colombia's independence war . Actually is in a rebuilding process, that includes a new control tower, and...

in honour of Salas.