Guatemalan Attorney General María Consuelo Porras met this week with Israeli Ambassador Alon Lavi and a delegation from Israel to discuss the ongoing investigation into alleged human trafficking by the extremist ultra-Orthodox sect Lev Tahor.
Local media reported that authorities are still working to identify the biological parents of children rescued from the sect’s compound last month, a process complicated by the lack of identification documents.
Members of Lev Tahor a week after the rescue of the children
To resolve the issue, Guatemalan officials plan to conduct DNA tests. Israeli diplomats have expressed their willingness to cooperate with local prosecutors in the investigation.
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On December 20, Guatemalan authorities raided the sect’s compound and rescued more than 200 children, teens and women. Prosecutors said that the operation followed reports from four minors, who are not Guatemalan residents, who fled the compound in November and provided testimony about abuse and human trafficking. Authorities also discovered buried remains at the site, some of which may belong to minors.
The rescued individuals are currently housed in facilities managed by Guatemala's welfare services. Meanwhile, Rabbi Nir Koren, the chief rabbi of Guatemala's Jewish community, clarified that while the sect identifies itself as Jewish, its radical practices diverge significantly from traditional Judaism.
Rabbi Koren noted that Guatemalan officials sought his assistance to translate for some members of the sect, as communication proved challenging. “Some understand and speak Hebrew, while others have limited Spanish,” Koren said. “I personally spoke to a few of them. When people tried to approach their compound, they yelled at them in Hebrew and Spanish to leave, becoming very aggressive and claiming it was private property.”