Ruth Buendía

Ruth Buendía Mestoquiari is a Peruvian activist and the first woman president of CARE, an organization which represents the indigenous Asháninka people. She was awarded the 2014 Goldman Environmental Prize for having led a campaign on behalf of the Asháninka people to oppose large-scale dams that would displace indigenous communities and endanger the environment. Buendía has also been selected among the 100 Global Thinkers of 2014 by Foreign Policy Magazine for her opposition to the construction of large-scale dams that would endanger the environment nearby the Asháninka indigenous communities.

Ruth Buendía was borned in the asháninka community of Cutivireni in the Satipo Province in 1977. After living a hard childhood, in which her father was killed by his own people for being regarded as a member of the terrorist group Shining path, she ran away with her mother and brothers to Satipo in 1991. She spent some years working as waitress and prostitute in Lima and Satipo until 2003, when she decided to join the organization "Central asháninka del Río Ene" (Care). After some years of political and environmental activity, she became the President of the organization in 2005, and was reelected in 2009 and 2013.

In 2009 and 2010 the CARE and Ruth Buendía led the protests against the construction of a hidroelectric dam in Pakitpazango, project that endangered the welfare of the asháninka community in the Ene River. As a result of this, Peruvean Government was forced to retire the grants from the company responsible for the construction, Pakitzapango Energía S.A.C., blocking the project until nowadays. Buendía, as representative of the CARE, received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2014, as well as another awards which made her being regarded as one of the most important environmentalist in South America.