Over 200 children, teenagers and women were rescued from the extremist Jewish sect Lev Tahor by Guatemalan authorities after suspicions of severe child abuse surfaced and were transferred to a special welfare facility over the weekend.
However, local sect members didn’t accept the decision peacefully and rioted outside the facility where the children were housed.
Footage from the rescue in Guatemala
A court in Guatemala held a hearing on the ongoing care for the children and teenagers on Monday, ruling that they would remain in welfare facilities for the time being.
Angered by the police raid over the weekend, cult members attacked Jews who came to assist the children, calling them "Nazis" and punching them. The sect’s members also violently assaulted police officers, who were stunned by the level of aggression, as such violence is uncommon in Guatemala.
They slashed the tires of buses used to transport the children to the welfare facility in an attempt to prevent more of them in the future. They also protested and shouted outside the facility where the evacuees were placed.
Some of the children were documented breaking the windows of a police patrol car in an attempt to escape. The Guatemalan police were forced to deploy resources on an unprecedented scale.
Footage from outside the facility housing the rescued Lev Tahor children showed sect members attacking Orthodox Jewish residents who came to check on ways to help the children and teenagers. The victims, known for their charitable efforts, have provided food and other essentials to the cult’s children for years.
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Guatemalan force during the rescue operation
(Photo: Guatemalan Attorney General of the Nation's Office / AFP)
A source involved in efforts to assist the children said, "It’s still unclear where the children will ultimately be placed. We’re awaiting a final court decision."
Meanwhile, Guatemalan officials told local media that sect members broke into the welfare facility in an attempt to abduct the children rescued from their compound by authorities, who accused the sect of child abuse.
Lev Tahor members protesting
(Video: via Guatemalan media)
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. Lev Tahor ("Pure Heart" in Hebrew) has faced multiple allegations of kidnapping, child marriage and physical and emotional abuse since it was founded in the 1980s.
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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.