Allegations against a respected aviation ministry damage work among remote groups.
Brazilian federal police are investigating Asas do Socorro, a Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) affiliate based in Anapolis, Brazil. The investigation follows accusations that the organization has smuggled jewels out of Brazil.
A Brazilian government agency has ordered Asas to stop operating within the country, at least until police findings are analyzed. Asas’s 30 missionaries and five airplanes provide relief, transportation, and medical assistance to evangelical missions that work among Brazil’s native Indians. The organization had to ground its aircraft and silence radio communication between airstrips. Most evangelical missions operating in northern Brazil, including Wycliffe Bible Translators, New Tribes Mission, and Unevangelized Fields Mission, have felt the impact of the shutdown.
The events that led to the investigation began last year. In November 1984, Antonio Carlos Alves Calvares, a man with a police record, approached Mark Lewis, 25, the son of an MAF missionary. Calvares asked Lewis to work for him as a courier, transporting gems to private buyers in the United States. Lewis says he knew nothing of Calvares’s past. He told CHRISTIANITY TODAY that he refused the offer, however, because Calvares did not appear to be authorized to export gems. Two months later, Calvares contacted Lewis again.
“He said he had founded an exporting company and that everything would be done legally,” Lewis said. “He convinced me that his business was legitimate, so I agreed to work for him. I made several trips on commercial airliners between Brazil and the U.S. [with] the jewels in my luggage. On every trip I carried with me documents that I believed to be in order.”
In March, U.S. Customs officers at Miami International Airport found more than $1 million worth of gems in Lewis’s luggage. By this time, he had become a bonded U.S. courier, licensed to transport valuable merchandise. The officers allowed Lewis to retain all the gems except for four diamonds, which were held for “insufficient documentation.” Lewis was told that the diamonds could be retrieved by presenting further documentation and by paying duty on the gems.
“Following the incident at customs, I began to sense something was wrong,” Lewis said. “… I called Calvares and told him I was nervous and that, after delivering the gems in the U.S., I would not return to Brazil.”
According to Lewis, Calvares threatened him and his family if he did not return to Brazil. He said Calvares also threatened to destroy the work of Asas by accusing the mission of wrongdoing. Refusing to yield, Lewis took the gems to U.S. Customs officials and told them he was not sure they could legally be sold in the United States.
Subsequent investigations in Brazil revealed that Calvares’s company had issued false documents and that taxes on the gems had not been paid. In September, a U.S. grand jury decided that Lewis and his attorney had enough evidence to open a case against several Americans and Brazilians suspected of involvement in a gem-smuggling ring. Among the suspects is Ibrahim Abi-Ackel, Brazil’s former minister of justice.
Following Lewis’s accusations, Calvares went to the federal police in Anapolis, Brazil, with a few accusations of his own. He produced a receipt issued on Asas letterhead and signed by MAF missionary Paul Lewis, Mark Lewis’s father. The receipt indicated that Calvares had made a sizable donation to the mission. Calvares claimed the donation had been made in semiprecious stones, which were smuggled by Asas into Europe and the United States. Although the evidence was thin, federal police decided to investigate the claims.
“In hopes of finding the slightest hint of wrongdoing, they’re turning everything upside down,” said Asas spokesman Edesio de Oliveira. Calvares did make a donation to the mission, Oliveira said. “… I believe Calvares was deliberately insuring himself against possible problems in the future. He simply was arranging a scapegoat to hold the limelight in case he ever got caught.”
Asas has been ordered to suspend operations in Brazil. The order was issued by FUNAI, an agency of the Brazilian government responsible for the well-being of Brazil’s native Indians. Oliveira said he doubts the legality of the order, but he hesitates to challenge the government agency.
“We depend on a good working relationship with FUNAI,” he said. “… Its anthropologists believe we cause ‘cultural upheaval’ by educating and evangelizing the Indians. To challenge them now might cause them to take strict measures against all missionary activity among Indians.”
In the Brazilian press, Lewis has been portrayed as a smuggler. The press also has implied that all evidence points to Asas’s guilt. In response, Asas has sent letters to many evangelical churches in Brazil, declaring its innocence and asking for prayer.
Officials at MAF headquarters in Redlands, California, have not informed their constituency about the situation.
“Because of the many confusing details surrounding this case, we feel that by attempting to explain the situation we might raise more questions than we could answer,” said Donna Burns, MAF’s director of public relations. “We would like to protect … innocent people from unnecessary attention and speculation.” Nevertheless, MAF has permitted its missionaries in Brazil to inform supporters about the situation.
Although Asas do Socorro was founded by MAF in 1955 and it uses MAF missionary personnel, there are no legally binding ties between the two organizations. Nationalized since 1964, Asas is one of 17 MAF affiliates that employ 300 missionaries in 30 countries.
While the investigation continues, Mark Lewis is living in Kentucky. In Brazil, authorities are awaiting the results of the U.S. investigation before opening their own probes into the affairs of Calvares and former minister of justice Abi-Ackel.
MARK L. CARPENTERin Brazil
