this is a Koka Plantation here in the
lower Amazon basin an area where years
ago this crop and this cultivation uh
was completely
[Music]
unknown welcome to Ikito Peru right on
the Amazon river deep in the Peruvian
rainforest we're in an area that is
close to the region where Colombia and
Brazil meet Peru this is an incredibly
isolated place where you can only get to
by plane or by boat right now we're on
our way to a pier on the river that's
going to get us on a boat that's going
to take us for 14 hours up this River in
order to locate and meet a community
known as the aausi they call themselves
the
Israelites since 2013 Peru has become
the world's leading producer of cocoa
leaf and cocaine replacing Colombia most
of that koca is grown in the cool high
altitude region of Peru known known as
the V the type of climate where Koka
traditionally thrives but in the
following years as Koka introdiction
efforts applied more pressure on KOCO
Growers Peru's Amazon basin suddenly
became a choice spot thanks to an
apparently new variety of cocoa leaf
that is adapting to the Amazon's fragile
ecosystem it's not a place where crops
were ever meant to be grown but in 1995
a religious group known as the ausi or
the Israelites decided that this
tropical rainforest would be its
promised land they came to settle and to
introduce farming to the Amazon soil
their Prophet Ezekiel atusi told them
they would be Peru's living Frontiers in
the Forgotten regions of the country
that formed the so-called triple border
with Colombia and Brazil since then the
atusi have lost their leader and
according to anti-drug authorities in
Brazil some members of the Israelites
Church in the Amazon rainforest have
been Direct ly involved in the Region's
booming cocaine industry so we decided
to come here to try to figure out how
much of these allegations are true and
to see if we could get to know this
reclusive and apocalyptic
church this journey felt a bit like
stepping into a scene from the verer
Herzog film Fitz coraldo in fact this is
where it was filmed the trip was slow
and long we were told it could take up
to 2 days to get to our destiny ation at
dawn with almost another halfway to go
we met our first member of the atusi
church it was pretty easy to spot
[Music]
her this is a community that has uh
separated itself from Peruvian Society
they dress in biblical clothes biblical
costumes and really they are isolated as
they attempt um to sort of establish
their presence permanently on the Amazon
as they conquer the Amazon
rainforest the river boat left us on the
dirt Pier of altoon the self-confessed
Israelites are a peaceful people but
they're not exactly welcoming to
Outsiders we had heard that every Friday
they hold a ceremony on the banks of the
river if we played it right maybe we
could film it but we had to ask for
permission and keep a low profile upon
arriv Ral this organization has a name
that's as long as it is incomprehensible
the Evangelical Association of the
Israelite mission of the new Universal
Covenant their spiritual capital is here
in artoon founded 20 years ago by people
answering the call of their Prophet
Ezekiel to populate the borders of the
Amazon
[Music]
they migrated from all across Peru many
fleeing economic hardships or the
internal war with the ma gorilla's
shining
[Music]
path expectations were high today 7,000
people live in this remote Community
with no running water paved streets or
cell phone coverage they use solar
generators for the little amount of
electricity there is to go around it
doesn't quite look like the promised
land that Ezekiel alusi told them it
would
[Music]
be for
[Music]
is
Juan oio told us the ausi started to
figure out the importance of Politics As
means to achieve the goals of their
church so they created a political party
known by its acronym forp Ezekiel ran
for president on the F pop ticket in
1990 nabbing 200,000 votes and succeeded
in placing members of his party in
[Applause]
Congress Ezekiel ran again in 1995 and
Was preparing to run in 2000 when he
suddenly
died the leader was supposed to have
reincarnated the third day after his
death but to church members surprise
that didn't happen so the group decided
that the spirit of Ezekiel must have had
transmigrated to the body of his son
honas a largely absent figure honas
doesn't even communicate with altoon
despite their absent leader the frop
movement remains alive today with a base
of Voters still active in the jungle
[Music]
communities the Sun is setting the women
are on one side the men on another and
this is the
sacrifice that is being offered on this
Friday by the Israelites
[Music]
I