Relative of rescued Lev Tahor member discusses group’s psychological abuse – interview
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Oded Twik emotionally described the most meaningful moments in the process of rescuing family members from the Lev Tahor cult in Guatemala.
“We must fight with all our strength and never give up,” said Oded Twik, author of the book ‘The Cult,’ who previously rescued his sister and her children from Lev Tahor in Canada in an interview with Maariv on Tuesday.
Over the past weekend, a large-scale rescue operation was conducted at the Lev Tahor cult compound in Guatemala following testimonies from children and teenagers, non-residents of Guatemala, who escaped the compound last month. The children reported abuse and human trafficking.
During the operation, approximately 160 children and 40 women were rescued, the children being dressed in the cult’s distinctive clothing. Buried bodies were also discovered at the site. The rescued individuals were transferred to a welfare facility in Guatemala City.
“These people are brainwashed, miserable; they’ve been through a holocaust,” he said. In 2011, Twik decided to visit his sister in Canada, whom he had not seen for seven years. Upon returning to Israel, he first heard rumors about the group being an extreme cult that abused its members.
“I gave it my all,” he shared. “There were nights I would sit up all night talking, making calls abroad. All night and in the morning, I would continue working and talking here, too.”
In May 2015, when members of the cult moved into an office building in Guatemala City, Twik undertook a daring rescue operation. “In a covert and armed operation, I took my sister and her four children and moved them to a motel. Within a few hours, we were already on a flight to Argentina.”
“In my case, I accompanied my sister 12 hours a day,” Twik recounts. “We didn’t have a budget for psychologists, but even today, years later, they still need psychological treatment. It doesn’t fade or go away. Some children are less affected, and some are more, but it leaves a mark.”
Twik called for government involvement in cases of “new families”—families who have fallen victim in recent years: “Families who used to work for many officials, paid social security, did everything as they should, but ended up entangled with such criminals, with offenders, in a dangerous cult. Yes, they were brainwashed; yes, they made a mistake with their children. But they can be saved, they can be rehabilitated—they are wonderful people.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-834770.
