Edher María Hernández Walteros, a teacher from Algeciras in Huila, was assassinated in Bogotá after being displaced by threats from FARC dissidents. His brother confirmed the incident happened Friday morning, with unknown motives. The professor had denounced corruption and the presence of armed groups in his region via social media.
Edher María Hernández Walteros, a teacher from the municipality of Algeciras in Huila, was assassinated in Bogotá. His brother, Jehová Hernández Walteros, confirmed the crime took place Friday morning, though he is unaware of the motives or causes. “I don’t know much, they tell me it was this morning in Bogotá,” Jehová said in a phone conversation with LA NACIÓN.
The teacher had been displaced from Algeciras due to threats from FARC dissidents after denouncing their presence in the area. In an interview with local media in Neiva, Edher recounted: “The Comandos de Frontera appeared in 2023, then the Segunda Marquetalia, and later the dissidents of ‘Iván Mordisco,’ and on my social network (Facebook), I indicated that they were not guerrillas, but ‘narcoparamilitaries’”.
His Facebook posts also denounced alleged corruption in Algeciras, Campoalegre, and Hobo. These led to extortion demands from the dissidents: initially $10 million, negotiated down to $5 million. Later, they sent someone to his business to demand he delete the posts and pay a fine. Edher requested time until December 15, 2023, and chose to leave the municipality.
A month earlier, in July 2023, his son Oscar Iván Hernández was killed in Algeciras, near the park in the Las Mercedes neighborhood. The young man, who was homeless, had attempted to attack his father with a knife the previous night and was intercepted by an armed individual.
In Bogotá, authorities are conducting investigations to clarify the teacher's murder.