At 4.30PM in the afternoon of 23 November 2019, human rights defender Edgar Hernández was travelling by motorbike with a friend, in the area of San Pedro Arizona, when gunmen opened fire killing him instantly. The friend, named as Teodisfelo Fajardo, also died in the attack.
Teodisfelo was also a community leader, active in the programme for the substitution of illicit crops.
Edgar was president of the Junta de Acción Comunal, JAC, (Community Action Board) in the community of La Independencia in Puerto Caicedo, Putamayo. In addition he was a member of the Asociación de Trabajadores Campesinos de Alto Mekaya -ATCAM— (Association of Farm Workers of Alto Mekaya) as well as a member of the Federación Nacional Sindical Unitaria Agropecuaria -Fensuagro— (Federation of National Unions of Small Farmers). He was also one of the leading organisers of the Marcha Patriótica.
According to the Red de Defensores de Derechos Humanos del Putamayo (Network of Human Rights Defenders of Putamayo) this was just the latest in a series of killings of community leaders and human rights defenders in the region.