Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family have landed in Miami after fleeing Brazil, following his defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The move came after 48 hours in which Bolsonaro refused to concede the election and threatened to challenge the result.
Bolsonaro, 45, first travelled to Argentina before moving to Ecuador with his wife and two daughters, according to Argentina’s migration authority.
The family was granted US visas by the Trump administration on Monday, a day before their departure from Brazil. Bolsonaro is an ally of US President Donald Trump and visited the White House in May.
His father, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, also travelled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula. He returned to Brazil three months later.
Flávio Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court in two cases involving alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion.
The court had ordered him to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports by noon Tuesday, two days after his election defeat.
It remained unclear whether he had complied with the order, although allies said late Tuesday that he also held an Italian passport.
Argentina’s migration authority said Flávio Bolsonaro, his wife Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and their daughters Carolina Figueira Bolsonaro and Luiza Figueira Bolsonaro entered the country at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday.
The family crossed through the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, a major border checkpoint connecting Brazil to Argentina’s northeastern province of Misiones.
“Those who did so possessed valid travel documentation and faced no legal impediments to entering the country,” the Argentine migration authority said on X.
The authority said the four family members boarded a private charter flight operated by Baires Fly S.A. at 11:30 p.m. local time, shortly after completing immigration procedures.
The flight plan showed that the aircraft was heading to Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 showed that a plane matching the description of Bolsonaro’s aircraft landed in Guayaquil at about 4 a.m. local time before departing minutes later for Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport.
The aircraft carrying Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami at around 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
The departure is expected to deepen diplomatic tensions between Lula and Argentine President Javier Milei, a Trump ally who travelled to Brazil to participate in Bolsonaro’s campaign.
Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, told several dozen supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia that he did not have precise information about Bolsonaro’s whereabouts but knew he had left Brazil.
“I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true,” Lula said. “This act of leaving Brazil is shameful.”
Paulo Figueiredo, a close Bolsonaro ally who lives in the United States, said in a brief statement that he could not confirm information from foreign authorities.
However, he added “Flávio Bolsonaro is well, in security and resting with his family.”
Figueiredo also said a press conference would be held in Miami on Thursday to discuss the case.
Representatives of the Brazilian government did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
US President Donald Trump said early Wednesday that he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the United States, describing him and his family as “fine people.”
“The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, after returning from campaigning in Texas on Tuesday.
Trump did not elaborate on his remarks but stressed that he did not endorse the election results.
Lula was re-elected by a margin of about 4.4 million votes in the second and final round of the election.
Leaders around the world and the Organisation of American States (OAS) endorsed the result and congratulated Lula on his victory.
Meanwhile, Argentine administration spokesman Adrián Ravier said on Tuesday that Bolsonaro had not requested asylum in Argentina.
“there is no asylum request (from Bolsonaro) and there is nothing more to add.”
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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