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Families demand the return of children rescued from a Jewish sect in Guatemala
A hundred relatives of the 160 children who were rescued from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect in Guatemala gathered on Sunday outside a shelter in the capital to demand that the authorities return them.
Relatives gathered on a street in front of the headquarters of the so-called Alida España Special Care Center for Children , where the minors were taken.
“We want them to let the children out of here,” a representative for the children’s families, Uriel Goldman, told AFP, as he watched several police officers stand guard near the scene.
Guatemalan authorities on Friday rescued 160 children from a farm belonging to the Lev Tahor sect , which was under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of minors .
The sect’s property, which was raided, is located in the municipality of Oratorio, about 60 km southwest of the capital.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the raid during which the children were rescued was carried out due to “suspicion” of human trafficking crimes “in the form of forced pregnancy, child abuse and rape.”
According to the prosecution, the alleged remains of a minor were found during the raid.
Goldman called the allegations against the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect “lies.”
“The authorities have carried out a very large investigation here in Guatemala, with reports, they are telling lies with false accusations,” Goldman said.
The Lev Tahor sect was under scrutiny by authorities over allegations of child abuse, forced marriages and teenage pregnancies.
The sect, which settled in Oratorio in 2016 after being expelled from a Mayan village in 2014 due to conflicts with locals, has described the investigations as “religious persecution.”
“There is pressure from outside to destroy the community, we are asking for support from the world,” said the representative of the families.
Lev Tahor was formed in the 1980s and its members, who wear dark robes and practice an ultra-Orthodox version of Judaism, settled in Guatemala in 2013.
Authorities estimate that the group is made up of 50 families, mainly from Guatemala, the United States and Canada .
