JOSE CARLOS MARIATEGUI, Peru (AP) — The Agricultural People’s Front of Peru has emerged as a potential favorite in Sunday’s legislative elections amid widespread disgust with the country’s traditional politicians and an extremely fragmented electorate. Known as Frepap, the party is the political arm of a messianic religious group called the Israelites of the New Universal Pact, which merges Old Testament Christianity with Andean culture. Adherents believe their leader is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and the Amazon is the promised land. Observers say its surprise emergence as a political force has to do with the roots it has put down and its proselytizing in remote communities and poor neighborhoods.
