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Authorities in Guatemala have resisted efforts by members of a Jewish sect to recapture 160 children rescued from its premises.<\/p>\n
The children were taken into care on Friday when police raided a farm used by the Lev Tahor movement, which is under investigation in several countries for serious sexual offences.<\/p>\n
Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez said they were allegedly being abused by a member of the sect.<\/p>\n
But on Sunday, sect members broke into a care centre where they were being held in an attempt to get them back, leading to scuffles with police.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Lev Tahor sect is known for extremist practices and imposing a strict regime on its followers.<\/p>\n
It advocates child marriage, inflicts harsh punishments even for minor transgressions and requires women and girls as young as three years old to completely cover up with robes.<\/p>\n
The sect accuses the Guatemalan authorities of religious persecution.<\/p>\n
The community settled 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 freed for lack of evidence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The events began when police raided the sect’s farm in Oratorio, south-east of Guatemala City, on Friday, taking the children into care.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said there were suspicions of “forced pregnancy, mistreatment of minors and rape”.<\/p>\n But two days later, about 100 of the children’s relatives – all members of the sect – gathered outside the centre where they were being held to call for their return.<\/p>\n Some sect members then forced open the gate and tried to abduct the children and adolescents sheltered there, the Attorney General’s Office said.<\/p>\n But the children were intercepted by the authorities and put into a white minibus, local media reported.<\/p>\n With police help, the centre “managed to locate and protect everyone again”, the Attorney General’s Office added.<\/p>\n Officials had previously tried to check on the children’s wellbeing, but were prevented from entering the farm by sect members.<\/p>\n Authorities estimate that the community is made up of about 50 families residing in Guatemala, the US, Canada and other countries.<\/p>\n The Jewish Community of Guatemala has issued a statement disowning the sect, describing it as foreign to its own organisation.<\/p>\n It 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”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n