Guatemalan police clash with Jewish sect over 160 children at risk

Guatemalan authorities have resisted efforts by members of a Jewish sect to recapture 160 children rescued from their facilities.

The children were taken in on Friday when police raided a farm used by the Lev Tahor movement, which is under investigation in several countries for serious sexual crimes.

Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez said they were allegedly being abused by a member of the sect.

But on Sunday, members of the sect broke into a care facility where they were being held in an effort to recover them, leading to clashes with police.

The Lev Tahor sect is known for its extremist practices and for imposing a strict regime on its followers.

It advocates child marriage, imposes harsh punishments for even minor transgressions, and requires women and girls as young as three to cover themselves completely with gowns.

The sect accuses Guatemalan authorities of religious persecution.

The community was established in Mexico and Guatemala between 2014 and 2017. In 2022, members of the sect were arrested in a police operation in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, but They were later released due to lack of evidence..

The events began when police raided the sect’s farm in Oratorio, southeast of Guatemala City, on Friday and took the children into custody.

Prosecutors said there were suspicions of “forced pregnancy, child abuse and rape.”

But two days later, around 100 of the children’s relatives, all members of the sect, gathered in front of the center where they were detained to ask for their return.

Then, some members of the sect forced the door and tried to kidnap the children and adolescents sheltered there, the Attorney General’s Office said.

But the children were intercepted by authorities and put into a white minibus, local media reported.

With police help, the center “was able to locate and protect everyone again,” the Attorney General’s Office added.

Officials had previously attempted to check on the children’s well-being, but members of the sect prevented them from entering the farm.

Authorities estimate that the community is made up of about 50 families who reside in Guatemala, the United States, Canada and other countries.

The Jewish Community of Guatemala has issued a statement repudiating the sect, describing it as alien to its own organization.

He expressed his support for the Guatemalan authorities in carrying out the necessary investigations “to protect the life and integrity of minors and other vulnerable groups that may be at risk.”