Tycoon helps Venezuelans start over in Brazil

BRAZILIAN tycoon Carlos Wizard Martins has never set foot in Venezuela. But the Mormon businessman is on a mission from God to help thousands of desperate migrants crossing the border to restart their lives.

At 62 and nearing retirement from businesses including Taco Bell and Mundo Verde that have turned him into a self-described billionaire, Martins is living on the Brazil-Venezuela border where he runs a volunteer network assisting migrants settle in other parts of Brazil.

“I often feel like an employee in a call center,” Martins tells AFP during a recent business trip to Sao Paulo, smiling as he shows the WhatsApp chat group he uses to coordinate with other volunteers.

Martins and his wife arrived in Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, in August 2018 on a mission from the Mormon Church to help Venezuelan migrants start over in Brazil.

So far, Martins and his team have helped relocate 3,000 migrants from Roraima to other states offering more job opportunities.

“We did it without spending a cent,” he says.

A similar governmentrun program has helped more than 8,700 migrants since February 2018.

Like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, Martins studies the profile of new arrivals to match them with the most suitable location in Brazil.

Migrants receive assistance such as food, clothing and a place to stay until they find work. In 90 percent of cases this happens within two months, he says.

The eldest of seven children of a driver and a seamstress, Martins knows what it is like to arrive in another country with nothing -- at 17 he went to live in the United States for two years.