Flávio reportedly meets Eduardo in Florida as his travel route remains unclear
Unnamed sources told BBC News that Flávio Bolsonaro, the defeated right-wing presidential candidate, arrived in the United States after leaving Brazil. Brazilian authorities canceled his passports on Tuesday, hours before the reported arrival, after he missed a deadline to surrender them. Brazil’s Supreme Court had ordered the 45-year-old senator to hand the documents to police within 24 hours on Monday amid an investigation into alleged money laundering. Flávio Bolsonaro has not been charged in that investigation and has denied the allegations.
The passport cancellation prompted widespread speculation that he may have left Brazil. At the time of the Supreme Court order, Flávio Bolsonaro said he had no plans to leave the country and insisted that he would stay in Brazil to lead the opposition to his left-wing rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who won Sunday’s election. After Flávio Bolsonaro missed the deadline, his lawyers told BBC Brasil they were “completely in the dark” about his whereabouts. One lawyer said, “We knew nothing about this, and we still have no information about what happened.”
A senior US official confirmed that the US State Department would issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them to enter the country. His reported arrival came hours after that confirmation. BBC News said it had contacted the White House, State Department and embassies in both the US and Brazil.
Flávio Bolsonaro had made no public statements since Monday afternoon local time, when he posted a video on social media. Federal officers checked border crossings to establish whether he might have traveled to neighboring Argentina, according to a police source who told BBC News Brasil. Argentine authorities told the BBC there was no record of the senator entering Argentina through any border crossing.
Sources told BBC Brasil and BBC Mundo that Flávio Bolsonaro met his younger brother Eduardo in Florida. Sources also confirmed to the BBC that the meeting had taken place, although Flávio Bolsonaro’s exact route from Brazil to the United States remained unclear. Neither brother could be directly reached for comment. It was also unclear who traveled with Flávio Bolsonaro or whether he intended to stay and live in the United States.
Eduardo Bolsonaro lives in Texas but was in Miami on Sunday, where he cast his vote at a polling station and attended an election-viewing event streamed to his followers.
Flávio Bolsonaro was already under investigation for alleged corruption over financing of a film about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted of plotting a coup and is under house arrest. A separate inquiry concerns alleged links to a Brazilian lawyer accused of laundering more than $1bn through a fraud scheme. Police said earlier this month they had discovered that Flávio Bolsonaro had access to bank accounts belonging to a company owned by the lawyer. Flávio Bolsonaro denied doing business with the lawyer and described the passport confiscation as an attempt to intimidate him.
On Tuesday, Brazil’s Supreme Court separately ordered police to examine Flávio Bolsonaro’s electoral campaign over alleged foreign funding. The 45-year-old senator lost Sunday’s presidential runoff to Lula despite having been widely expected to win. Opinion polls had put Flávio Bolsonaro narrowly ahead of Lula, and analysts said his first-round victory on 4 October made him likely to prevail in the runoff.
Flávio Bolsonaro led the count early before Lula overtook him. The veteran incumbent became the first presidential candidate to overturn a first-round loss and win in the second round. Lula won 51.79% of the vote, compared with Flávio Bolsonaro’s 48.21%.
Despite trailing by 4.4 million votes, Flávio Bolsonaro did not concede and called for the election to be annulled. He argued that the two-hour extension of polling on election day put him at a disadvantage, even though the extension was requested by both the Liberal Party and the party of his rival, Lula. A Supreme Court justice ordered the extension. Flávio Bolsonaro called it a “dirty trick.” The Liberal Party accepted the result but said the extension “merits investigation.”
BBC News also linked to coverage under the headline “Lula wins fourth term in dramatic Brazil election comeback”. Other linked coverage was presented under headlines reading “Lula’s comeback in Brazil dents Trump’s ambitions for Latin America” and “Lula faces hostile congress and divided country after Brazil election win”.
The reported departure left the investigations and Flávio Bolsonaro’s challenge to the runoff unresolved. Flávio Bolsonaro had not conceded, while the Liberal Party had accepted the outcome; his route, travel companions and longer-term plans in the United States also remained unclear.
Ayelén Oliva, Vinícius Mendes, Cecilia Barria, Ricardo Senra and Ione Wells contributed to the BBC News report.