Ezequiel Ataucusi Gamonal (10 April 1918 – 21 June 2000), also known as Brother Ezequiel, was a
Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
vian politician and self-proclaimed
prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...
theocratic
Theocracy is a form of autocracy or oligarchy in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries, with executive and legislative power, who manage the government's daily a ...
party known as
Agricultural People's Front of Peru
The Agricultural People's Front of Peru (; FREPAP) is an agrarian political party in Peru, founded in 1989 by Ezequiel Ataucusi Gamonal. The party had 42,083 members in 2020.
History
Ezequiel Ataucusi Gamonal created the Evangelical Associa ...
(FREPAP).
Early life
Ataucusi was born in 1918 in Huarhua, a village of Cotahuasi near
Arequipa
Arequipa (; Aymara language, Aymara and ), also known by its nicknames of ''Ciudad Blanca'' (Spanish for "White City") and ''León del Sur'' (Spanish for "South's Lion"), is a city in Peru and the capital of the eponymous Arequipa (province), ...
into a poor family. He held many jobs as a shoemaker, railroad worker, soldier and carpenter.
Spiritual leader
In the 1950s while in his forties, Ataucusi experienced many issues with his life and converted from
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
to the
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sa ...
. While experiencing a serious illness, he reported that he visited a "third heaven" and addressed himself as a prophet, writing the
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...
on a
blackboard
A blackboard or a chalkboard is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, better known as chalk.
Blackboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or da ...
saying he was tasked with delivering the commandments for a second time. After the incident, he was removed from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, subsequently beginning to evangelize rural Peruvians in 1956.
The Evangelical Association of the Israelite Mission of the New Universal Covenant ( - AEMINPU) was created by Ataucusi in 1968 and the religion was officially recognized in Peru in 1969. The religion is a mix of Seventh-day Adventism,
Judaism
Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...
,
Inca
The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...
mysticism and
Maoism
Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...
. The founding of the church happened when many rural Peruvians faced a decline in socioeconomic standards into the 1970s. As the
internal conflict in Peru
The internal conflict in Peru is an armed conflict between the Government of Peru and the Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path. The conflict's main phase began on 17 May 1980 and ended in December 2000. From 1982 to 1997 the Túpac Amaru Rev ...
intensified, followers flocked to AEMINPU.
Ataucusi preached that he was chosen by God to create a new Israel in the
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...
as a punishment of the
Israeli people
Israelis (; ) are the citizens and nationals of the State of Israel. The country's populace is composed primarily of Jews and Arabs, who respectively account for 75 percent and 20 percent of the national figure, followed by other ethnic and ...
for their losing faith. Followers of the movement regarded Ataucusi as a prophet and "the reincarnation of the
Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is a concept within the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is understood as the divine quality or force of God manifesting in the world, particularly in acts of prophecy, creati ...
". He gradually reduced the importance of
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
in his movement. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' described him as "a self-styled spiritual leader who called himself the 'Christ of the west'". Ataucusi would often state that the apocalypse was approaching and would preach that he delayed such events. His followers were required to wear robes modeled from the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
, though Ataucusi never wore them saying that he would only do so when the apocalypse occurred. Throughout this time, he had several wives and was known to be very sexually active, according to ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
''.
His party, the Agricultural People's Front of Peru (FREPAP), was officially founded by Ataucusi on 30 September 1989. By the 1990s, his number of followers ranged from 60,000 to 200,000. In 1995, investigations were opened against Ataucusi surrounding allegations of killing disagreeing followers and supposed links to
Shining Path
The Shining Path (, SL), self-named the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a far-left political party and guerrilla group in Peru, following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the ...
, though none of the accusations were ever confirmed.
He was the party's candidate for president of Peru three times, for the 1990 election, 1995 election and 2000 election, though he was never elected for any political office.
Lima
Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...
of kidney failure and his followers held a three-day funeral, waiting for his resurrection beside his body decorated with gold jewelry. As his followers waited for his resurrection and his body began to decompose, Ataucusi's body was placed in a glass coffin. After not resurrecting, many followers became disillusioned with him.
Ataucusi's son Jonas was chosen as his successor and his party eventually grew within the
Peruvian Congress
The Congress of the Republic of Peru () is the unicameral body that assumes legislative power in Peru. Due to broadly interpreted impeachment wording in the Constitution of Peru, the President of Peru can be removed by Congress without cause, ...