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The US State Department said Tuesday it will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family, as US media reported that the defeated Brazilian presidential candidate had left Brazil for the United States despite a court order barring him from leaving. Bolsonaro has refused to concede his runoff loss to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“The State Department will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States,” a senior department official said. The official did not confirm whether Bolsonaro was actually traveling to the country.
CNN, citing an anonymous official source, reported that Bolsonaro, 45, was heading to Florida. The New York Times and other outlets also said he had left Brazil, citing unnamed US officials.
Brazilian authorities offered a less clear picture. A police source told AFP that Bolsonaro’s Brazilian and diplomatic passports had been canceled and that “there is no formal record of Flavio Bolsonaro leaving the country.” He has held Italian nationality since 2023, according to an Italian parliamentary document seen by AFP. Bolsonaro had not surrendered his passports as of Tuesday afternoon.
Media reports that he had entered neighboring Argentina were denied Tuesday by that country’s security ministry and migration authorities.
His campaign manager, Rogerio Marinho, said he was shocked by the reports. “We still don’t have any news about his whereabouts,” he told reporters in Brasilia. Marinho said Bolsonaro had sent him a text message that morning saying he would “let some time pass” and then talk with the campaign team, which was the only communication they had.
Lula won Sunday’s runoff with 51.8 percent of the vote. Bolsonaro, a right-wing senator and the son of jailed-turned-house-arrest ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, had come out on top in the first round earlier this month and was widely seen as the favorite. He campaigned on a pledge to free his father.
After the result, Bolsonaro said he would seek to annul the outcome, citing the decision to extend polling hours because transportation difficulties had kept some citizens from voting. Lula had requested the extension, as had Bolsonaro, who pointed to bad weather in parts of the country. His party and allies have accepted the result, leaving him increasingly isolated, and he has said he would lead the opposition to Lula’s government.
US President Donald Trump, a close ally of Jair Bolsonaro, said Monday that Brazil’s elections were “rigged.”
On Monday, Bolsonaro said a Supreme Court justice had ordered him to hand over his passports. He called the ban on leaving the country a scare tactic. “I never had any intention of leaving the country. I will surrender my passports and defend myself against this travesty,” he said in a video posted on Instagram.
He is under investigation for alleged corruption and money laundering, including a corruption probe over the financing of a biopic about his father. The New York Times reported he is also being investigated over ties to a Brazilian lawyer accused of laundering more than $1 billion through an alleged fraud scheme. With his election loss, he is also set to lose his parliamentary immunity.
Separately on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ordered police to investigate alleged foreign funding of Bolsonaro’s campaign and other interference from abroad, such as social media “manipulation.” Lula’s campaign had complained of interference by Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, alleging “algorithmic manipulation.” Meta denies taking any actions to favor either side, though it previously said some of Lula’s campaign ads were mistakenly deactivated because of technical errors.
The episode recalls the aftermath of Brazil’s 2022 election, when Jair Bolsonaro lost to Lula, never conceded defeat and left the country on the eve of his rival’s inauguration. He returned to Brazil three months later. He is now under house arrest for coup-plotting.
Flavio Bolsonaro’s brother, Eduardo, a former lawmaker, is based in the United States and maintains close ties with the White House. Last week, Eduardo told a US podcast that Flavio should leave Brazil if he lost the election, given the active probes into his activities.
Lula, speaking Tuesday at his 81st birthday celebration in Brasilia, said it would be “shameful” if his rival had fled. “A person who sneaks out of their country must have something to hide. The act of leaving Brazil is shameful,” he said.
According to Bolsonaro, the passport order stemmed from remarks by his U.S.-based brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, who told an American podcast two days ahead of the vote that “if my brother does not win, I am in favor that he would leave the country.”
Several investigations target Bolsonaro, among them a corruption probe into the funding of “Dark Horse,” a biopic about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, now under house arrest over a coup plot.
"I never had any intention of leaving the country. I will surrender my passports and defend myself against this travesty," Flavio Bolsonaro said.
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