Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday, after he refused to concede to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva then fled the country.
In a circuitous journey, Mr Bolsonaro left for Argentina on Tuesday with his wife and two daughters, then travelled to Ecuador, according to Argentina officials and flight data.
The 45-year-old senator and his family arrived in Florida a day after the Trump administration granted them United States visas. Mr Bolsonaro, an ally of US President Donald Trump, visited the White House in May.
Mr Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula before returning to Brazil three months later.
Flavio Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court, accused of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion.
The court had ordered him to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports by noon on Tuesday. It remained unclear whether he had complied, but allies said late Tuesday he also has an Italian passport.
On Wednesday, Mr Bolsonaro issued his first comments on his flight in a statement on X, in which he called himself the victim of electoral fraud and political persecution, and again asked for the annulment of the Lula–Alckmin ticket.
“I want to tell not only my 60 million voters but also the Brazilian people as a whole that I am the president-elect, and that the criminals who stole Brazil’s election are part of a criminal organisation that has established a tyranny,” he said.
In a later version of the letter, Mr Bolsonaro swapped the term “president-elect” for “leader”.
Dressed casually in a dark polo shirt and flanked by his wife and two daughters, Mr Bolsonaro stepped out of the plane shortly after it landed in Miami at around 9.30am local time. Florida is home to the largest population of Brazilians in the US.
Before the family landed in Florida, Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, spoke to dozens of supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia.
“I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true,” Lula said. “This act of leaving Brazil is shameful.”
That Mr Bolsonaro travelled via Argentina is almost certain to cause a diplomatic rift between Mr Lula and Argentine President Javier Milei, another Trump ally who travelled to Brazil to take part in Mr Bolsonaro’s campaign.
Mr Trump has said Mr Bolsonaro is welcome in the US, calling him and his family “fine people”.
“The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible,” Mr Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Tuesday.
Earlier, Mr Trump also said, without evidence, that the election was “rigged”.
When asked about Mr Bolsonaro’s assertion on Wednesday that he was the “rightful president-elect of Brazil” – a term the defeated candidate later softened to “leader of Brazil” – the US president said he would not comment.
Instead, Mr Trump said he has given Mr Bolsonaro a “pass” to come into the country.
“I won’t get involved,” Mr Trump said, before repeating his claim that the election was “very strange”.
Share