GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan authorities on Friday searched the compound of an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect and detained at least 160 minors and 40 women in protective custody after reports of abuse.
Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez said the National Civil Police and members of the army participated in the raid on the Lev Tahor group’s community, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) southeast of the capital.
“The protection of boys and girls is an absolute priority,” said Jiménez.
The Attorney General’s Office of Guatemala said in a statement on the social platform X that suspicious bones of a child were found. The office said a complaint was filed in November for possible crimes, including forced pregnancies, child abuse and rape.
The sect has had legal problems in several countries.
In 2022, the Mexican authorities arrested a sect leader near the border with Guatemala and took several women and children from their compound.
In 2021, two leaders of the group were convicted of crimes of kidnapping and child sexual exploitation in New York. They allegedly kidnapped two children from their mother to return a 14-year-old girl to an illegal sexual relationship with an adult man.
The sect is known to have members in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala and Israel.