Authorities in Guatemala have resisted efforts by members of a Jewish sect to recapture 160 children rescued from their premises.
The children were taken into care on Friday as police searched a farm belonging to the Lev Tahor movement, which is under investigation for serious sexual offenses in several countries.
Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez said they were allegedly ill-treated by a cult member.
But on Sunday, cult members broke into a nursing home where they were being held to get them back, leading to scuffles with police.
The Lev Tahor sect is known for extremist practices and the enforcement of a strict regime against its followers.
It advocates child marriage, imposes harsh penalties for even minor infractions and requires women and girls aged three and over to cover themselves completely with robes.
The sect accuses the Guatemalan authorities of religious persecution.
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 They were later released due to lack of evidence.
The events began when police raided the cult’s farm in Oratorio, southeast of Guatemala City, on Friday and took the children into custody.
Prosecutors said there were suspicions of “forced pregnancy, abuse of minors and rape.”
But two days later, about 100 of the children’s relatives – all members of the cult – gathered outside the center where they were being held and demanded their return.
Some cult members then forcibly opened the gate and tried to kidnap the children and young people staying there, the public prosecutor’s office said.
But the children were intercepted by authorities and put into a white minibus, local media reported.
With the help of the police, the center managed to “locate and protect everyone,” the attorney general’s office added.
Officers had previously attempted to check on the children’s welfare but were prevented from entering the farm by cult members.
Authorities estimate the community consists of about 50 families living in Guatemala, the United States, Canada and other countries.
Guatemala’s Jewish community has issued a statement rejecting the sect, calling it alien to its own organization.
It expressed support for the Guatemalan authorities in carrying out necessary investigations “to protect the lives and integrity of minors and other vulnerable groups who may be at risk.”
