Flavio Bolsonaro and family to receive US visas after leaving Brazil: US State Dept
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Flavio Bolsonaro speaking in Brasilia on Oct 25, after losing the presidential runoff election.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Flavio Bolsonaro has left Brazil for the United States after losing the election, and the US State Department said it will give visas to him and his family.
- Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered him to surrender his passports over a money laundering probe, citing flight risk and his “significant financial resources”.
- The move has deepened tension between Brazil and the US, while Lula called it “shameful” and Trump said he would approve Bolsonaro’s arrival.
AI generated
SAO PAULO - Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States after losing the Oct 25 presidential election, three sources said on Oct 27, with the US State Department due to grant him and his family entry visas.
Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede to leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left Brazil after refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports.
The ruling relates to a money laundering probe in which he denies wrongdoing.
Argentina’s migration department said on Oct 28 that Bolsonaro and his family had briefly entered the country’s Misiones province the night before through a road crossing, with valid travel documents, before boarding a private plane bound for Guayaquil, Ecuador, at 11.30pm local time.
Argentina cited the flight plan, for the plane operated by air charter company Baires Fly, as the source for the aircraft’s destination.
The Ecuadorian foreign ministry did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment outside regular hours.
The location of Flavio, his wife and two daughters was not immediately clear.
Speaking to reporters late on Oct 27, US President Donald Trump had said that he had heard Bolsonaro was in Argentina.
A senior US State Department official said the agency “will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States”.
Brazil-US rift grows
Bolsonaro’s departure threatens to deepen a rift between the two most populous nations in the Americas.
Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros to put them back in power, and Reuters reported ahead of the Oct 25 election on a US State Department campaign to restore them to office.
US President Donald Trump told reporters on Oct 28 that he would approve of Flavio Bolsonaro coming to the United States.
“Well, I would approve. I think they’re fine people. The election was very strange, and I thought it was terrible. It’s gotten bad reviews. You look at what happened to their market,” Trump said.
“I think it’s so terrible to see it. I didn’t take sides, you know. I know them both. I know Lula. I know Flavio a little bit. I know the father very well. The father was treated really badly. I thought, but I wasn’t involved. That’s Brazil. It’s a different country.”
Trump has previously alleged Flavio’s father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was a victim of judicial persecution in Brazil.
The elder Bolsonaro also went to the US after refusing to concede to Lula in 2022, when former US president Joe Biden was in office.
He eventually returned to Brazil but was later given a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia.
On Oct 26, Trump had said the Brazilian vote “looked like another rigged election”.
Lula, speaking in Brasilia, said he had just heard that Flavio had left the country, and called it shameful, saying he should have stayed in Brazil and proved his innocence.
Bolsonaro was favoured to win the Oct 25 presidential election but ended up losing in a shock result to Lula.
Ordered to hand over passports
On Oct 26, he was given 24 hours to surrender his passports, which were cancelled after the deadline lapsed, two sources said.
In a court ruling seen by Reuters, the Supreme Court cited the risk of Bolsonaro fleeing Brazil and his “significant financial resources” in ordering his passports seized.
Members of the media outside the home of Brazilian senator Flavio Bolsonaro on Oct 27, two days after he lost the presidential runoff election to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Bolsonaro, who loses his immunity from prosecution when his Senate term ends in February, said on Oct 26 he had no plans to flee.
“I have never thought about leaving the country,” he said. “I will hand over my passports and defend myself against this travesty, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me.”
His departure appeared to have caught his campaign manager off guard.
“We are surprised by the news because, just yesterday, we discussed the need for Flavio – given the 60 million votes he received – to take on this role as leader of the opposition,” Senator Rogerio Marinho told reporters.
Following father’s path
Senator Bolsonaro has yet to officially concede defeat – saying on Oct 25 he would seek the annulment of the result over alleged voter irregularities – but his Liberal Party said on Oct 26 it acknowledged Lula’s victory.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, Bolsonaro’s younger brother who lives in the US, said ahead of the vote that an election loss would require a move.
“If my brother does not win, I’m in favour that he would leave the country,” he told podcaster Steven Crowder this month. REUTERS