Guatemalan authorities rescued 160 children and adolescents from the fundamentalist Jewish cult Lev Tahor in southeastern Guatemala on Friday following allegations of child abuse, including rape, prosecutors said.
"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.
Lev Tahor ("Pure Heart" in Hebrew) has faced multiple allegations of kidnapping, child marriage, and physical abuse since it was founded in the 1980s.
Founded in 1988 in Israel, Lev Tahor practices an austere form of Judaism with interpretations of Jewish law that include long prayer sessions and arranged marriages.
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.
Jewish community reacts
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."
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.