Brazilian official says Flávio’s two passports canceled after defying de Moraes’s order

Argentine border authorities found no evidence Flávio Bolsonaro planned to board the jet

A Brazilian official said Brazil canceled the regular and diplomatic passports of losing presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro after he defied an order Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued late Sunday to surrender them. In a late-Monday Instagram video, Bolsonaro said he would surrender the passports, but his location remained unresolved Tuesday as authorities investigated reports that he had fled to Argentina en route to the U.S., according to the official. Argentine border authorities said they searched a private jet at Iguazú Falls International Airport and found no evidence that he planned to board the aircraft.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes had ordered Bolsonaro late Sunday to surrender his passports and barred him from leaving Brazil. The Brazilian official said Bolsonaro defied the surrender order. His last public statement came late Monday in the Instagram video. Bolsonaro thanked voters for their support after losing the presidential election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, repeated accusations of possible foul play in the elections, denied wrongdoing and said he would hand over his passports. His spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

The diplomatic passport had been issued to Bolsonaro as a senator and was canceled along with his regular passport. The Brazilian official said no official record had emerged of Bolsonaro leaving Brazil through the country’s border with Argentina, but many crossing points were not staffed by authorities. Argentine border authorities searched a private jet at Iguazú Falls International Airport, near the border with Brazil and Paraguay, after local media reported that Bolsonaro intended to board the plane for a flight to the U.S. The authorities said they found no evidence that he was planning to board the aircraft.

The Brazilian official’s account linked the cancellations to Bolsonaro’s defiance of de Moraes’s surrender order and described authorities’ investigation into reports that he had fled to Argentina. Argentine border authorities reported the result of searching a specific aircraft: they found no evidence that he planned to board it. The official’s statement that no official departure record had emerged came with the caveat that many crossing points were unstaffed. These separate evidentiary strands left Bolsonaro’s location unresolved Tuesday.

Bolsonaro faces two Supreme Court investigations into alleged financial crimes involving online betting and efforts to finance a film about his father. As a senator, he is subject to the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction in criminal cases. The court opened one investigation in July into financing that Bolsonaro sought from Daniel Vorcaro, the banker at the center of Brazil’s Banco Master fraud scandal, for a film about his father. This month, the court opened another investigation into alleged money laundering related to Bolsonaro’s ties to a lawyer involved in Brazil’s online betting industry. He denies wrongdoing in both cases. De Moraes and the Supreme Court have defended their actions as necessary to uphold the law and protect democratic institutions, while some legal scholars have accused de Moraes of “overreach.”

The Bolsonaros have long accused de Moraes and the Supreme Court of what they called a “political witch hunt” against the family, and they have repeatedly turned to President Trump for support in their battles with Brazil’s judiciary. A U.S.-based adviser to the Bolsonaro family said it would not be irrational for Flávio Bolsonaro to flee the country, given the prospect of jail time.

Flávio Bolsonaro is the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. After losing the 2022 election to da Silva and refusing to concede defeat, Jair Bolsonaro flew to Florida in late December, two days before leaving office, as Supreme Court scrutiny mounted over his claims of election fraud. He returned to Brazil three months later and became the subject of a lengthy investigation overseen by de Moraes into allegations that he had plotted to overturn the election result. Convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison late last year, the former president is serving his sentence under house arrest.

Flávio Bolsonaro’s younger brother, Eduardo, moved to the U.S. in early 2025, where he lobbied the Trump administration to intervene in his father’s prosecution. Those efforts earned him a conviction in Brazil. He now faces a four-year prison sentence if he returns to Brazil, but has secured a U.S. green card that allows him to remain in the country permanently.

In recent months, Flávio Bolsonaro has cultivated close ties with Argentine President Javier Milei, whose spending cuts he embraced as a model for Brazil. Milei traveled to Brazil in July to personally endorse Bolsonaro at the launch of his presidential campaign, a month after hosting him at the Argentine presidential residence in Buenos Aires.