By David Toro Escobar
Guatemala City, Jan 24 (EFE). – The leaders of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish cult Lev Tahor in Guatemala deny accusations of crimes against minors, including sex trafficking, that led to the separation of 160 children from the community and warn that the government “will fall” if one of those minors dies.
“If one of the children taken from us dies, the Guatemalan government will fall,” Uriel Goldman, one of the local leaders of Lev Tahor, told EFE this week outside a family court, where authorities tried to identify the parents of the children rescued in December.
Goldman said the minors in state custody “have almost no food and are in poor health,” noting that his community has international and that the actions of Guatemalan authorities are frowned upon abroad.
On Dec.21, Guatemalan authorities accused Lev Tahor of sex trafficking and raided a farm in the municipality of Oratorio, in the southeastern province of Santa Rosa, rescuing 160 minors.
According to Goldman, Lev Tahor settled in Oratorio in 2016 after tensions with indigenous communities in San Juan la Laguna, which forced them to leave the country’s highlands, where they were originally based.
Tensions between the community, which arrived in Guatemala in 2013, and the state institutions in charge of the case have increased since the separation of the minors and the arrest of another of their leaders, Jonathan Cardona, who tried to flee to El Salvador.
The investigation
Nearly 300 of Lev Tahor, which had kept a low profile for years, became embroiled in the judicial process after the escape of four minors in November who reported abusive conditions.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office justified the raid on suspicion of multiple crimes of “human trafficking in the form of forced pregnancy, abuse of minors and rape.”
Guatemalan authorities took custody of 160 minors and placed them in state-run centers in Guatemala City, but have remained tight-lipped about details of the investigation.
During the raid, prosecutors found bones in a courtyard, but no further information has been released.
According to prosecutors consulted, the search continues to yield new evidence that could lead to criminal charges against those responsible.
Goldman complained, “the prosecution asked the court for five days to get more evidence, and already a month has ed and they have nothing against me or any of us. “
He assured that they will continue to protest before the Ministry of the Interior, the State Attorney’s Office, and the President’s Office “until the children are released.”
In the past week, of Lev Tahor, mainly women, have demonstrated by blocking the streets around the centers where their children are being held and have clashed with security forces.
On Jan. 20, Guatemalan authorities announced three other minors were taken into state custody based on indications that they were victims of forced marriages.
Previous cases against Lev Tahor
of Lev Tahor adhere to an extreme interpretation of Jewish law that include practices such as shielding its from the outside world, lengthy prayer sessions, arranged marriages between teenagers, and head-to-toe black clothing for girls and women from the age of three, among others.
Lev Tahor have faced similar accusations in Canada, the United States, and other countries, often leading to their relocation.
In 2013, Canadian authorities charged Lev Tahor with child neglect for child abuse.
In 2022, Mexican authorities arrested a leader of the sect near the Guatemalan border and removed several women and children from the compound.
In 2021, two leaders of the group were convicted of kidnapping and sexual exploitation of children in New York. They allegedly kidnapped two children from their mother to return a teenage girl to an illegal “sexual relationship” with an adult male.
In June 2024, three senior of Lev Tahor,the Weingarten brothers, were sentenced to 12 years in prison by a New York federal court for kidnapping and sex trafficking. EFE
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