After losing the presidential election in Brazil, conservative senator Flavio Bolsonaro managed to reach the United States yesterday after a dramatic escape that kept his country in suspense for more than 24 hours, notes Agence France-Presse, BTA reported.
After refusing to admit his defeat by leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, he announced his intention to request the annulment of the second round of the election held on Sunday.
Because he was under the sights of justice, Flavio Bolsonaro's passports were canceled. However, this did not prevent him from leaving the country, surprising everyone, including his own allies.
On Monday, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) published a video from which it was not possible to determine his whereabouts. In it, he stated that judicial authorities had banned him from leaving the country in an attempt to intimidate him. At the same time, he assured that he had never considered leaving and promised to lead the opposition. The ban on leaving the country was related to an investigation against him for money laundering.
On Tuesday morning, the Argentine news site “Infobae“ reported a possible departure of the senator by plane from Puerto Iguazu, in northeastern Argentina. The city is known as the gateway to the Iguazu Falls.
That same morning, journalists in the Brazilian capital saw three black cars leaving the senator's home. According to local journalists, the motorcade split up a short time later. And then journalists noticed that the car in which Jair Bolsonaro's son usually travels was empty, which became clear when the driver rolled down the window.
As speculation multiplied, a police source confirmed to AFP that the senator's Brazilian passports, including his diplomatic passports, had been canceled after the deadline for him to hand them over to the authorities expired.
Meanwhile, American media, citing anonymous sources, reported that he was traveling to the United States.
Visibly surprised, the head of Flavio Bolsonaro's election campaign, Rogerio Marinho, said after an emergency meeting of deputies from the conservative presidential candidate's Liberal Party that there was no news about its leader. "Early Tuesday morning, I received a message from him saying he would let things settle down for a while during the day and then we would talk. That's the only contact we've had," he told reporters.
On Wednesday night, Argentine immigration authorities announced that Flavio Bolsonaro, his wife and their two daughters had crossed the border. The announcement came more than 12 hours after initial reports of his possible escape.
The senator entered Argentina "with valid travel documents and without any legal obstacles" through the Tancredo Neves international bridge, which connects Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil with Puerto Iguaçu in Argentina. In addition to his Brazilian citizenship, Flavio Bolsonaro also holds Italian citizenship. It is not known how he got from the capital of Brazil to this area, which is more than 1,500 kilometers away.
A short time later, a private plane "Gulfstream 400" took off from Puerto Iguazu for Guayaquil, Ecuador, according to Argentine immigration authorities. After a brief stop at an empty airport to refuel, the plane took off again. The flight tracking website "Flytower" indicated that its final destination was Miami. According to the flight tracking website "Flytradar", about 927,000 Internet users followed the route of the plane on which Bolsonaro is believed to have been traveling.
About 12 hours after crossing the Argentine border, the Bolsonaro family arrived at Opa-Loca Airport in Florida. There they boarded a car and left the airport, with their final destination in the United States unknown.
Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro declared himself the "legally elected president" of Brazil in an open letter circulated on social media and shared by journalists, Reuters reported. In his statement, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro claimed, without providing evidence, that his victory in Sunday's presidential runoff was taken away from him through an "electoral coup" by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the country's Supreme Court.
Flavio Bolsonaro later declared himself the "legally elected president" of Brazil in an open letter circulated on social media and shared by journalists, Reuters reported. In his statement, the son of former head of state Jair Bolsonaro claimed, without providing evidence, that his victory in Sunday's presidential runoff was taken away from him through an "electoral coup d'état" by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the country's Supreme Court. However, the senator later deleted his letter from social media and posted a new one, in which the words "I am the legally elected president" were added. were replaced with "I am the leader of Brazil", Reuters reported.
Bolsonaro also said he left his country to avoid "the politicization of the Brazilian justice system".
US President Donald Trump has ordered the State Department to issue US visas to Bolsonaro and his family. He has already said he approves of his arrival in the US, but said in response to Bolsonaro's open letter that he "will not interfere" in the Brazilian senator's affairs, Agence France-Presse reported. "I will not interfere. "But it was a strange election, that's for sure," Trump added, referring to the election in which Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a fourth presidential term.
It is likely that Bolsonaro managed to flee to the United States using his Italian passport and passing through Javier Milley's Argentina, the Italian left-wing newspaper "Repubblica" also points out.
According to Simon Levi, a Mexican entrepreneur close to Trump's circles, the trip was organized by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with whose entourage the Bolsonaro clan maintains long-standing relations. Washington has not yet confirmed this information, the Italian publication commented.
He disappeared from his homeland together with his wife Fernanda and his daughters Luisa and Carolina, and a film will probably be made about this escape one day.
The traces of this escape lead to Argentina, to the runway of the airport in Puerto Iguazu, not far from the Brazilian border, the Italian publication also writes.
According to the Italian publication, however, there is a mystery surrounding the flight of the private plane “Gulfstream 400“. The plane took off from Buenos Aires and landed in Puerto Iguazu on Monday evening at 11:45 p.m. The same plane was scheduled to take off for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with four passengers and three crew members on Tuesday at 2 a.m. local time. According to “Infobae“ The plane's Brazilian pilot, Mauro Matosinho, said an airport employee told him Flavio's name was on the passenger list, but the document field opposite that name was blank. The plane never took off, but Flavio arrived in Florida "alive and well," Levy said. According to Bandnews TV, he landed in Fort Lauderdale at 5:00 p.m. local time, writes “Repubblica“
Fleeing is something of a vice of the Bolsonaro clan, the newspaper adds.
Flavio Bolsonaro's father, Jair Bolsonaro, fled to the United States three days before the inauguration of Lula, who defeated him in the 2022 presidential election. On January 8, 2023, supporters of Jair Bolsonaro stormed and devastated the presidential palace, Congress, and the Supreme Court in Brazil. Jair Bolsonaro subsequently returned home and is now serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for this coup attempt.
Flavio Bolsonaro's brother, Eduardo, has been on the run since 2025. Since then, he has worked as a lobbyist for the Trump clan. A few weeks ago, he was finally sentenced to four years and two months in prison in his homeland. Yesterday, he met with his brother, Flavio, in Florida.
“He could have stayed and proven his innocence. Fleeing Brazil is a disgrace. But the Bolsonaro family is like that. Brazil is their second homeland. The first is the United States“, said Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva regarding Flavio Bolsonaro's escape.