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Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, the former conservative presidential candidate who lost Sunday's election runoff to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left Brazil for the United States in an operation involving two vans, a private jet and a former agent of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency who reportedly accompanied him, according to an investigation published by CNN Brasil.
Bolsonaro, his wife Fernanda and their two daughters crossed into Argentina by road Tuesday through the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, connecting Foz do Iguacu in southern Brazil with Puerto Iguazu in Argentina, CNN Brasil reported Friday.
Security camera footage identified two vans and their drivers. One driver was a former councilman for the city of Foz do Iguacu. The other was his son.
A former Israeli intelligence officer who had worked for Mossad reportedly accompanied Bolsonaro from Brasilia to Argentina, according to the investigation.
The agent arrived in Brazil on Oct. 19 and later traveled in the same van as the senator, according to the report. It did not establish what role, if any, he played in organizing the operation.
The family boarded a Gulfstream G400 private jet in Puerto Iguazu. The aircraft, operated by Argentine charter company Baires Fly, stopped in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to refuel before arriving at Opa-locka Executive Airport in Miami early Wednesday.
CNN Brasil said the operation was internally referred to as "Operation Alba" and had been planned before the presidential election campaign ended.
Brazilian investigators were examining possible logistical support from contacts linked to the governments of Argentine President Javier Milei and U.S. President Donald Trump, said the report.
No direct involvement by either government in the operation has been confirmed.
Brazil's Federal Police said Wednesday it found no records of Bolsonaro passing through Brazilian immigration checkpoints when leaving the country.
His departure came after Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered him to surrender his personal and diplomatic passports and prohibited him from leaving Brazil.
The Federal Police is investigating the circumstances of his departure and may ask the Supreme Federal Court to block his assets, including bank accounts, according to CNN Brasil.
Bolsonaro said Friday that he fled Brazil to the U.S. because he was a victim of "persecution" in his country. He secretly left Brazil on Tuesday and arrived in Florida aboard a private jet on Wednesday after traveling through Argentina and Ecuador.
"The persecution began even sooner than I imagined," the senator said during an Instagram livestream in which he discussed his decision to flee after his Brazilian passports were canceled as part of a money laundering investigation.
In the video, he recounted how police informed him Monday that his passports were being revoked as he left a visit to his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest.
"With tears in his eyes, he told me: 'You know where they're going with this, don't you?'" he said of his father.
"I told him: 'Dad, I know... Now I know what I have to do,'" he recounted.
Although he gave no details of how he left the country, he said he and his wife made the decision "without anyone knowing" and urged people not to "point the finger at anyone."
"I didn't leave Brazil, I left for Brazil," Bolsonaro said, alleging that Moraes had made false accusations against him.
He also suggested there had been irregularities in the runoff, comparing them to "handball goals" that were not disallowed by the video assistant referee, without detailing what those irregularities might have been.
He also predicted that the economy would "go bust" under Lula and said he was willing to run for president again: "I'm not talking about 2030, I'm talking about before then."
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