The Ashaninka Army
How an indigenous army used bows, arrows, and clubs to defeat a terrorist force armed with machine guns
"I remember seeing their bodies floating in the river," she told me in Spanish.
"How old were you?"
"Six."
President Judith Reymundo responded with shocking ease, even cheerfulness, considering what we were discussing. As I grew to know her, I realized this is a core trait of hers--to look at suffering with a smile and transform it into inspiration. Later, this would hold true as she told me about how her daughter died, or about her own recent cancer diagnosis.
In that moment sitting elbow to elbow with Judith in the backseat of a cramped taxi, I was listening in amazement as she described when terrorists took over her hometown. Back in the 80s, Maoist insurrectionists known as Senderos Luminosos or "The Shining Path" terrorized the countryside of Peru and massacred families and infants. The Peruvian police force and military were of little help as they not only failed to stop the Senderos but also abused their power and eventually resorted to wearing ski masks to hide from retribution. The Senderos primarily operated in the jungle and in 1989 they arrived in Puerto Bermudez, the largest population center of the Ashaninka, where a young Judith would hear a knock on her door...
For two months the revolutionaries had terrorized Puerto Bermudez with impunity. Already, they had killed her grandfather, uncles, and robbed the town's bank using dynamite. When Judith heard the knock, she feared the worst. Yet when her mother opened the door, she found herself staring into a face stained red. A warrior stood in the doorway with crimson juice of the achiote plant painted on in the traditional preparation for war. The warrior explained in their language that the Ashaninka and Yanesha had united to face the Senderos and take back their land. The Senderos carried machine guns. The warrior carried a bow and arrow. After learning of the resistance, Judith's mother carried a club. Using these tools, her mother and her people won the war.
This is the story of the Ashaninka Army.
The Ashaninka are the most numerous Amazonian people group in Peru. During my time among them, I learned of their traditional one-piece robes called kushmas, listened as an elder who wove baskets for seventy years bemoaned how no one wants to learn such skills anymore, and received an herbal steam bath in which a medicine woman dropped hot stones into a pot of plants and boiling water. Walking through a plantain and cacao farm our friend pointed out a spotted green tree that he explained is used to cure covid and due to their traditional plant medicine they barely had any deaths even among the elderly. I wondered how many lives might be saved if we were listening more closely to the knowledge of peoples in the Amazon. I and my photographer friend Rachel Shu were in town to take photos and videos for AMEAIK, an association of female indigenous entrepreneurs led by Judith. However, after hearing Judith's account of the war we decided to embark on a side quest in order to pursue this story further. We decided to take a canoe to the neighboring village of San Pablo to meet with Abelardo Aco, the current mayor of San Pablo who helped lead the Ashaninka Army. Upon arriving, we started by visiting classes where kids learned Ashaninka, Spanish, and traditional plant medicine. The kids laughed as I clowned around and it reminded me of when I taught juggling and clowning to students in Oakland, California with Prescott Circus. I thanked the teachers and encouraged the kids to learn because they have knowledge that people in the USA do not have. "You are capable of helping the world with what you are learning here."
Then we sat down with Abelardo, his wife Rosa, the teacher Revelinda, and a medicinal plant expert Armilda. Rosa kindly offered me oregano tea and a hammock to nap on as I was still recovering from a horrendous stomach bug that had me blasting out vomit and diarrhea like a double-ended volcano. After that, we began the interview.
The darkest times of the Senderos reign of terror began a couple days before New Year's of 1990 when they assassinated the pinkatseri ("president" in Ashaninka), Alejandro Calderon. After his death, Abelardo organized a reunion of communities in which they formed an army of men and women. "And women?" I asked.
"Yes," responded Abelardo.
I turned to Rosa. "Did you fight as well?"
She nodded grimly. "I carried a club."
As well as uniting local Ashaninka and Yanesha communities, Abelardo also visited the uncontacted Ashaninka tribes of Gran Pajonal. "They did not even have chickens," he explained. "They almost killed me. Our dialect was different." Yet after tense negotiations, they agreed to join forces.
He explained that they would wait in the jungle outside of towns. The Senderos tended to slip away from a town individually or in small groups into the trees, where the Ashaninka would be waiting for them. Later, I read about how the Ashaninka used their knowledge of the local terrain and wildlife to utilize bird calls that they would recognize but the Senderos would only hear as random jungle sounds. Upon finding people departing from town carrying guns, Abelardo told me they would be taken to where they had 24 hours to decide to choose to end their violent ways or be executed. At times, firefights would commence and afterwards the Ashaninka used medicinal plants on their bullet wounds. As I sipped my tea and listened, Abelardo explained, "we are a peaceful and friendly people. But when we are threatened, we will unite and fight."
As our canoe pulled away from the shore, my friend Vilma noticed her sister (or maybe a just a friend as they tend to say "sister," "uncle," etc. for many people as though they are all one big family.) We helped them to lift plantains from their stick propelled raft and then Vilma explained that Basilio, the husband of her (maybe) sister also led a group in the Ashaninka Army. "We made a mistake," he told me in response to me asking about the war. "We never should have allied with the tribes of Gran Pajonal." He went silent, and I remembered what the former mayor of Puerto Bermudez had told us. I asked Basilio if he ever had to stop them from killing innocents. He nodded and said that he had to argue with them often to prevent them from killing anyone who did not speak Ashaninka.
Two days earlier our friends Vilma, Vice President of Iroperanto Koya female entrepreneurs’ association, and Nica Perez, administrative assistant of the local education department, introduced us to Evaristo Zumaràn who became mayor of Puerto Bermudez only days before the Senderos arrived. On November 17 or 18, around 300 Senderos arrived in the town and robbed the bank. Evaristo requested help from the Peruvian military but none arrived. Then one day, he found dismembered bodies embedded with arrows floating down the river. Soon, he found himself trapped between the Senderos and the enraged Ashaninka. "One of the Ashaninka bosses dragged me out of my home and beat me in the streets." Then an Ashaninka man named Hilder Pedris tried to convince his people that they should not kill all colonists and that they are not all terrorists. "I have a lot of respect for him," explained Evaristo. Eventually, Evaristo and the Ashaninka leaders met in the central park. "We spoke of how colonists and indigenous must work together against a common enemy." Peace gradually returned to the area, though to this day reports of Sendero activity remains in surrounding areas. Evaristo has hundreds of pages written about those times and hopes to publish a book if he can gather the funds.
However, by November of 2022 when Rachel and I visited we were greeted by a thriving town of welcoming, humorous, and inspirationally hard-working and good-spirited colonists and indigenous living side by side.
The story of the Ashaninka Army is not simple, nor is the entire story worth celebrating or decrying indiscriminately. Many questions remain in my mind. When people were taken to a holding area for 24 hours, how often were they executed and how often were they released? What sort of things did they say? What is the story behind Marcos Muñoz from the ministry of defense who Evaristo explained was a traitor who helped the Senderos? What do a majority of the Ashaninka around Puerto Bermudez think of those times?
To me, it is a story of confusion, desperation, determination, violence, and attempts for peace mixed together in one. In the eyes of history, it is the story of when an indigenous Amazonian people group won using bows and arrows against a force using machine guns.
For many though, it is a story of self-reliance. In the words of Judith, "The police did not help us. The military did not help us. We defended our land and won."
Yet there is an even more inspiring story. In a later conversation with Judith, I mentioned that my Birthday is June 21, the summer solstice. "You have the same Birthday as my daughter." Her daughter did not live beyond the age of two. She would have been four today. Now, it seems possible that Judith might join her daughter soon. On November 7 of this year, she was diagnosed with cancer. In response to this, I told her that I am sorry, but she responded by telling me...
"Cada día es un regalo y hay que vivir con un propósito, el de servir a los demás."
"Every day is a gift and you have to live with a purpose, to serve others."
I did not know any of this about her as I first was inspired to support her mission to improve the lives of one million women in the Amazonian cuenca. I did not know this as she welcomed me to Puerto Bermudez with an infectious cheerfulness and introduced us to her friends and family. Now I know, and I am more grateful and inspired than ever for the work that she does. Judith, Vilma, Nika, and others of Iroperanto Koya are working together today to support education and career training among indigenous women across the Amazon through their organization AMEAIK, Asociación de Mujeres Empresarias Ashaninkas Iroperanto Koya or The Association of Female Ashaninka Entrepreneurs, and Iroperanto Koya is most closely translated as “women warriors.”
To see the interviews and photos that Rachel took:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zrGzl0pN6OtHzJtHHr-_b158RO5RBexc?usp=sharing
We’d love to have these edited to shorter videos and have english captions added but I don’t have time to organize that at the moment. Please feel free to reach out if you’d like to help with this.
To support AMEAIK, please see the following website: