Lawyer Eduardo Elias, a grandchild of Syrian migrants, is a long time member of Club Homs, one of the most traditional clubs in Sao Paulo, founded in 1920. He is also the current president of the Federation of Arab Entities in São Paulo who was part of a delegation of 14 prominent Brazilians of Syrian-descent that visited Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus in September 2016, only two days after an airstrike in Aleppo hit a convoy of Red Crescent trucks carrying UN-supplied food, killing 12 aid workers.