Flávio Bolsonaro Flees Brazil to US After Election Loss and Cancelled Passports

Flávio Bolsonaro, Brazil's defeated right-wing presidential candidate, has fled the country and reportedly reached the United States after defying a Supreme Court order to hand over his passports as part of a money-laundering probe.

Bolsonaro was widely favoured to win Sunday's election but lost in a shock result to leftist incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The day after the vote, he was given 24 hours to surrender his passports as part of the probe, in which he denies wrongdoing. When that deadline passed without compliance, his travel documents were cancelled.

Despite this, Bolsonaro left Brazil with his wife and two daughters. Argentina's National Directorate of Migration confirmed the family arrived in Argentina on Tuesday night before boarding a private flight operated by Baires Fly S.A. to Guayaquil, Ecuador. Brazil's Correio Brasiliense subsequently reported that he arrived in the United States, citing Federal Police sources who said the operation was coordinated by Trump administration Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The US State Department confirmed it would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family. People close to the Bolsonaro clan told O Estado newspaper that his extended family only learned of his departure on Tuesday and described the decision as "untimely."

President Lula called the flight "shameful," saying Bolsonaro should have remained in Brazil and proved his innocence. Lula has also accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros to return them to power. The Trump administration has previously alleged that Flávio's father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, was a victim of judicial persecution in Brazil.