In Focus: Highlighted Environmental Human Rights Defenders

Kady Hammer
Dec 24, 2016
2 min read

Peru: Máxima Acuña

Peru’s mining industry is growing at an incredible speed, which makes the race for resource rights all the more contentious. Just as quickly as these companies drain the resources in their controlled regions, they seek out new regions to expand their operations in. In 2011, the land of Máxima Acuña was in the sights of Yanacocha Mine, a joint mining venture between Colorado’s Newmont and Peru’s Buenaventura companies. Máxima lives in the Tragadero Grande, Peru’s northern highlands where her and her husband bought land to live from and raise their children.

Máxima’s fight for the land began in 2011 when the Yanacocha mining company tried to remove her from her home. The company sought to drain four lakes, including Laguna Azul on her property, and use the area as a waste storage pit, which would threaten the five watersheds that connect to these lakes. Máxima refused to leave her land and as a result, armed security forces beat her and her daughter unconscious and destroyed her home and possessions. The company then sued Máxima and her, where the provincial court found them guilty of “illegally squatting” on their own land. The court ordered her to pay a $2,000 fine and she was sentenced to three years in prison. Máxima appealed the provincial court’s ruling and with the help of the NGO GRUFIDES, she was able to obtain documents to prove her legal right and title to the land. And in December of 2014, Máxima’s prison sentence and fine were overturned, and the company was halted from pursuing mining activity in the Tragadero Grande.

Despite the legal victory for Máxima, her battle to protect her land did not end. She continues to face intimidation, harassment, and death threats from the mining company and its armed security. The company has since constructed a fence around her land to restrict her movement and have also destroyed her potato crops, which they use as a main source of food. The company is also using armed security contractors to monitor her property and maintain a permanent presence just outside the boundaries of her property. The legal battle continues in the Peruvian Supreme Court.

In 2016, Máxima Acuña received the Goldman Environmental Prize for her bravery in protecting the Tragadero Grande. After receiving this award, Máxima was attacked in September by company armed forces and she was recently attacked again in December.