THE BREAKER OF MEGA DAMS
Ruth Buendía is an Asháninka, an indigenous people with their own language, culture, and beliefs who have lived in Peru’s central rainforests for over 5,000 years. Although known as being fiercely independent, the Asháninka have faced encroachment onto Asháninka land from rubber tappers, Maoist guerrillas, loggers, drug traffickers, colonisers, and oil companies, and the latest incursion, a Government proposal for a series of large-scale hydroelectric dams that would flood its lands, displacing some 10,000 Asháninka.
Ruth Buendía was 12 years old when the Shining Path guerillas invaded Asháninka territory, establishing political and military operations. During the violence, her father was killed, and her mother sent Buendía away to safety in Lima where she learnt to speak Spanish. Returning to her homeland, Buendía was approached by a fellow Asháninka who asked her to join the Asháninka Center of the Ene River (CARE), where she started volunteering, and in 2005, at 27 years old, was elected the first woman president of CARE.
Without any original consultation with the journalist María Díaz del Río speaks to her from Peru:
