Under Siege

Guatemalan authorities raided the compound of an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect on Friday, rescuing at least 40 women and 160 children following allegations of child abuse, including rape, reported ABC News.

The farm used by the Lev Tahor community about 55 miles southeast of Guatemala City was raided by police and the military, who took the women and children into protective custody, said Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez.

Jiménez added that the children were allegedly being abused by a member of the sect, prompting the search by the authorities.

In a statement on the social media platform X, the Central American country’s attorney general’s office said that bones suspected to be of one child were found. The office also said that a complaint was filed in November of possible crimes which included forced pregnancies, mistreatment of minors, and rape.

Following the raid, about 100 people from the sect gathered outside where some tried to take the children back forcibly, the attorney general’s office said.

The Lev Tahor movement, made up of an estimated 50 families, is under investigation for serious sexual offenses in several countries where they reside, including Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, and Israel, reported the BBC.

The small sect is known for extremist practices, the news outlet added, for example advocating for child marriage, inflicting harsh punishments for minor transgressions, and requiring women and girls as young as three to cover up with robes.

After hopping around the glove, much of the sect settled in Mexico and Guatemala between 2014 and 2017. Members of the community were arrested in a police operation in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas in 2022 but were later freed due to a lack of evidence.

Lev Tahor now claims they are facing religious persecution from the Guatemalan government.

The Jewish Community of Guatemala has disowned the sect, and expressed support for the Guatemalan authorities in carrying out necessary investigations “to protect the lives and integrity of minors and other vulnerable groups that may be at risk.”