Brazil’s defeated right-wing presidential candidate, Flavio Bolsonaro, arrived in Florida by private plane on Wednesday, despite a court order that barred him from leaving the country. Journalists at the scene saw the 45-year-old step off the jet at Opa-Locka Executive Airport outside Miami, ending days of speculation about his whereabouts.
Bolsonaro lost a runoff election to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday. He is under investigation in Brazil over alleged corruption and money laundering, and with his election defeat he is set to lose parliamentary immunity.
Flight route and passport status
The aircraft, which also carried his wife and daughters, flew via Argentina and Ecuador. Journalists saw it make a brief stop in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in the early hours of Wednesday.
Also read: Lula wins Brazil presidential election after first-round loss
A police source told reporters that Flavio Bolsonaro’s Brazilian and diplomatic passports had been cancelled. However, the senator has held Italian nationality since 2023, according to Italian documents seen by reporters. Washington has said it would grant him a United States visa.
Court ban, denial and campaign pledge
In a video posted on Instagram on Monday, Flavio Bolsonaro said he “never had any intention of leaving the country” and described the exit ban as a scare tactic. He said a Supreme Court justice had ordered the travel ban, based on a comment by his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who is based in the United States. Before the election, Eduardo had said that “if my brother does not win, I am in favor that he would leave the country.”
Flavio had campaigned on a pledge to free their father, Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest for coup-plotting after his own electoral loss to Lula in 2022. Jair, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, never conceded that defeat. He left the country on the eve of his rival’s inauguration and returned to Brazil three months later.
Lula’s response and claims of a rigged vote
Lula, who won the election with 51.8 percent of the vote, called fleeing the country a “shameful” act. Speaking in Brasilia at his 81st birthday celebration on Tuesday, he said, “A person who sneaks out of their country must have something to hide.”
After the loss, Flavio Bolsonaro said he would seek to annul the result. He cited the decision to extend polling hours because of transport problems that prevented some citizens from voting. Bolsonaro had seemed likely to become president after coming out on top in the first round, but Lula made a surprise surge to retain power.
Trump said the election “looked terrible to me” and told reporters in Washington: “I didn’t take sides but it looked like another rigged election frankly… it looked so corrupt.” He added that the way votes were tabulated, with the extension, was a very bad look.
