The 160 children and teenagers and 40 women rescued from the extremist Jewish sect Lev Tahor in Guatemala, have been transferred to a welfare facility in Guatemala City. Some of them caused disturbances over the weekend, leading to damage at the site, Ynet learned on Sunday.
As a result, authorities were forced to relocate them to another facility. Meanwhile, sect members gathered near where the 200 rescued individuals were being held and protested against the operation.
Rescue operation in Guatemala
Sources familiar with the situation estimated that all the rescued sect members will ultimately be released, as there's no legal basis to hold them in the facility. Behind-the-scenes efforts to transfer the children to guardians in Israel are also facing challenges, as proof is required that both parents are harming the children.
Authorities in Guatemala are currently seeking a legal basis for the issue but have yet to find a solution. Estimates suggested that out of the 200 rescued individuals, 150 hold Israeli citizenship, while the rest are citizens of Guatemala, the U.S. or Canada. Some of the children were born in Guatemala.
Guatemalan authorities are considering issuing a presidential decree to deport them from the country but the sect’s members have the option to appeal the decision. Local law prohibits deporting Guatemalan citizens and deporting foreign nationals presents significant legal hurdles.
According to prosecutors, the raid followed reports from four children and teenagers, who are not Guatemalan residents, who escaped the site last month and gave testimonies about abuse and human trafficking taking part in the sect. Authorities added that buried bodies were also found at the compound, some of which may belong to minors.
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Guatemalan forces during the rescue operation
(Photo: Guatemalan Attorney General of the Nation's Office / AFP)
Over 480 police officers, soldiers and psychologists took part in the operation, during which computers, phones and other equipment were confiscated as potential evidence.
During the rescue, the children were dressed in the sect’s distinctive clothing. They were passed over the heads of police officers through openings in the community’s large gate. One sect member was seen recording the officers’ actions with a smartphone on the Sabbath — a violation of Jewish law.
The sect's members also instructed the children in Yiddish. “There are police surrounding the entire compound,” one member was heard saying. “All the children should push the officers at the same time. It’s permissible to hit the officers. They’re not allowed to hit you back. Climb up and get out from above.”
The Lev Tahor community, founded in 1988 in Israel, practice an austere form of Judaism with interpretations of Jewish law that includes long prayer sessions and arranged marriages.
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Women who took part in the sect after the operation
(Photo: REUTERS/Cristina Chiquin)
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Lev Tahor ("Pure Heart" in Hebrew) has faced multiple allegations of kidnapping, child marriage and physical abuse since it was founded in the 1980s.
The community settled in Mexico and Guatemala between 2014 and 2017. In 2022, a Mexican police operation in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on the Guatemalan border rescued a group of children and adolescents from a Lev Tahor camp, whose members were arrested on suspicions of participating in abuses against minors.