Flávio Bolsonaro landed in Miami after leaving Brazil despite a court order. He called himself Brazil’s rightful leader.
Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro landed in Miami on Wednesday after leaving Brazil in defiance of a Supreme Court order, and he declared himself his country’s rightful leader.
Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters entered Argentina late Tuesday, according to Argentina’s migration department. Reuters reported that a Gulfstream G400 left Puerto Iguazú at 12:22 a.m. Wednesday, landed in Guayaquil, Ecuador, at 3:46 a.m., and flew on to Miami’s Opa-locka Executive Airport. AFP witnessed him step off the plane. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the family was inspected and cleared in accordance with applicable immigration laws. The State Department had said it would grant visas to him and his family. President Donald Trump said early Wednesday that he approves of Bolsonaro coming to the United States and called the family “fine people,” but he told reporters he “won’t get involved” in Bolsonaro’s claim to the presidency. Trump repeated that Brazil’s election was “very strange.”
Bolsonaro, 45, left after a deadline expired at noon Tuesday for him to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had ordered him to surrender the passports and not leave Brazil, in a money-laundering investigation in which he denies wrongdoing. Police canceled the passports. A Brazilian source close to him said he feared arrest. In a statement on X, Bolsonaro first called himself the elected president and accused “criminals who stole Brazil’s election” of running a tyranny. He then revised the statement to call himself the “leader” instead, and he said he would lead the opposition from the United States. A letter he published said he did not flee Brazil but left for Brazil’s sake, and that staying would have left him imprisoned and silenced as his father is. He said there is no arrest warrant against him, and Brazilian police said Wednesday that he is not considered a fugitive.
Lula, who won Sunday’s runoff with 51.8% of the vote, called the departure shameful. He said that a person who sneaks out of his country must have something to hide and that he regrets Bolsonaro did not stay to prove the accusations false. Lula has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaro family. Bolsonaro has refused to concede and made unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud. His father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup.
Information for this report was provided by Reuters, AFP, CBS News, CNN, France 24 and Newsweek.