Guatemalan authorities rescued 160 children and adolescents from the extremist Jewish sect Lev Tahor in southeastern Guatemala on Friday following allegations of child abuse, including rape, prosecutors said.
Over 480 police officers, soldiers and psychologists took part in the operation, during which computers, phones and other equipment were confiscated as potential evidence.
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Guatemalan forces with the rescued children
(Photo: Guatemalan Attorney General of the Nation's Office \ AFP)
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.
The rescue operation in the agricultural municipality of Oratorio, 78 kilometers (48.47 miles) southeast of Guatemala City, highlights ongoing concerns over the controversial practices of the Lev Tahor sect, which has faced similar allegations in the past.
"Based on the statements of the complainants, the evidence obtained, and the medical examinations, it was possible to establish that there are forms of human trafficking against these minors, such as forced marriage, abuse, and related crimes," Nancy Paiz, a prosecutor at Guatemala's Prosecutor's Office Against Human Trafficking, said at a press conference.
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 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.
The Jewish Community of Guatemala in a statement said the sect was foreign to its own organization and expressed its support for Guatemalan authorities in carrying out necessary investigations "to protect the lives and integrity of minors and other vulnerable groups that may be at risk."
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It called on the "government and diplomatic corps of countries from whose nationalities make up members of Lev Tahor, to join forces to protect those whose rights may be violated." The minors are now under the protection of the government and investigations remain underway.