On the night of Thursday, 16 January 2020, Yordan Tovar was shot dead, when he was in the community store of the Sintcafromayo union, a Fensuagro subsidiary, in the village of Teteyé in Puerto Guzman.

Yordan Tovar, in addition to serving as a director of the Putumayo Border Peasant Workers’ Union, was a member of the Human Rights Network and an active member of the Patriotic March in the department.

The murder was condemned by the Putumayo Human Rights Network, which received the information via telephone from a family member of the victim. According to that organisation, the incident occurred around 7:30pm at night, when armed men arrived at the union’s community store and shot him several times. He died immediately.

Currently more than 17 social leaders have been receiving threats in lower Putumayo while 20 community leaders have been killed in the first 16 days of 2020. According to the network, to date, neither the national nor departmental governments have adopted preventive measures to defend the life and integrity of these citizens, who are mostly peasants.