For nearly seven months, authorities in the United States and Ecuador did not know where six children were hiding after they fled Guatemala with their mother following the collapse of the Lev Tahor sect. Last week, the search ended in a dramatic rescue operation, when the children were found in an isolated house in a small village in Ecuador, suffering from severe malnutrition and neglect.
According to a report by Yeshiva World News, the operation was carried out through cooperation between ultra-Orthodox activists, law enforcement authorities in the United States and Ecuador, and officials connected to the U.S. Embassy in the South American country.
According to the report, the children’s mother fled Guatemala about seven months ago as Lev Tahor was unraveling following a series of investigations and legal proceedings against senior members. Her husband, a sect member currently serving a lengthy prison sentence for kidnapping and threats, allegedly continued to control the family even from prison.
Sources familiar with the case said U.S. authorities had gathered significant evidence and testimony against the mother and had obtained legal authorization to remove her six children, ages 4 to 12, from her custody. Shortly before the order was to be carried out, however, the family disappeared.
For months, authorities tried to track them down. They were eventually found in an isolated house in one of Ecuador’s rural areas after what was described as “exceptional investigative work.” According to officials, the mother entered Ecuador using American passports and applied for refugee status, allowing her to remain in the country temporarily.
Once the hiding place was located, a joint operation was coordinated between local authorities and American officials. According to the report, Ecuadorian authorities sought to deport the mother for violating visa conditions, while the United States worked to ensure the children’s safe transfer.
The operation began last Thursday morning. Hatzalah Air, which joined the mission after appeals from activists who said the case involved a risk to life, provided a special aircraft for the rescue. According to testimony, the mother resisted the move, shouted and acted violently during the operation, but authorities managed to take control of the situation and remove the children from the home.
People who saw the children described a particularly difficult scene. They said the six children had been kept for months in a small, crowded room, suffering from severe malnutrition and neglect. According to testimony, their diet consisted mainly of fruits and vegetables, with almost no protein.
One person involved said the eldest child, 12, weighed “like an average 6-year-old.”
The children were taken under security to the aircraft by Ecuadorian agents and officials connected to the U.S. Embassy. According to reports, two Ecuadorian officials remained on board the flight to ensure the deportation process was completed without incident and that the mother did not return to the country.
After the plane landed in New York, the children were placed with a foster family, while welfare authorities began extensive treatment and rehabilitation procedures.
Lev Tahor, founded in Israel in 1988, practices an extreme form of Judaism with strict interpretations of Jewish law. The sect has faced numerous allegations of kidnapping, child marriage and physical abuse since the 1980s, and later relocated to North and Central America.