Flavio Bolsonaro ‘leaves Brazil for US with family days after losing election’
Police had ordered the Brazilian senator to hand over his passports within 24 hours.
Flavio Bolsonaro has left Brazil for the United States just days after his election defeat, a source close to the Brazilian senator has told Reuters.
The source said Bolsonaro had left Brazil with his wife and two daughters, just hours after Brazilian police announced that they had cancelled his passports.
Police said Bolsonaro had failed to comply with an order to surrender his passports within 24 hours as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering, which he denies.
In a video posted on his social media channels on Monday, Bolsonaro said he had no plans to leave Brazil and was instead trying to organise opposition among his congressional colleagues to the election results.
His eight-year term as a senator expires on Jan. 31, 2027, after which he will also lose the special jurisdiction he currently enjoys at the country’s Supreme Court.
Brazilians had earlier taken to social media to ask about Bolsonaro’s whereabouts. Reporters gathered outside his home in the capital, Brasilia, but he did not appear.
A spokesperson for Argentina’s Ministry of Security denied reports that the Brazilian senator had entered the country. Brazilian media outlets also reported that several of Bolsonaro’s allies had been unable to reach him.
Following reports of a private plane at Iguazu International Airport, near the Argentina-Brazil border, Argentine authorities checked the aircraft and its crew. They found no flight plan listing the Bolsonaro family.
A spokesperson for Argentine President Javier Milei, a right-wing leader who has yet to congratulate Lula on his victory, said there was no asylum request, declining to provide further details.
Bolsonaro’s apparent departure could mirror the actions of his father, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who moved to the United States after refusing to concede defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022.
The elder Bolsonaro eventually returned to Brazil but was later sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup.
His son has yet to formally concede defeat, saying on Sunday that he would seek to have the election result annulled over alleged voting irregularities.
He said he would challenge the result after a Supreme Court justice appointed by Lula extended voting by two hours because of transport-related irregularities.
“It is impossible to recognise the election results, given the circumstances under which things unfolded,” Bolsonaro told journalists.
However, his Liberal Party said on Monday that it acknowledged Lula’s victory.
With all votes counted, 80-year-old Lula secured 51.79 per cent of the vote, defeating his 45-year-old rival, who received 48.21 per cent. Analysts said high voter turnout may have helped Lula secure the victory ahead of his 81st birthday.
Bolsonaro’s petition has been questioned because his own campaign had also sought an extension of voting hours due to heavy rains in the conservative-leaning south.
His refusal to concede could nevertheless trigger protests in a country where public confidence in the electoral system and judicial independence has come under strain in recent years, observers said.
Right-wing influencer Paulo Figueiredo, who serves as an unofficial spokesperson for the Bolsonaro family, declined to answer questions about the senator’s whereabouts.
“After months of intense work that has been unfairly thwarted, I am not in the mood to speak to the press,” he said in a message. “If I have any comments to make on any matter, I will get in touch.”
Eduardo Bolsonaro, the senator’s younger brother who lives in the United States, had said before the election that a defeat would require a move abroad.
“If my brother does not win, I’m in favour that he would leave the country,” he told podcaster Steven Crowder earlier this month.
Credit: Independent
