Flavio Bolsonaro, the right-wing candidate who lost Brazil's presidential election this week to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, landed in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday after fleeing Brazil despite a court order prohibiting him from leaving the country.
Bolsonaro arrived in the United States with his wife and two daughters after an escape route that took them through Argentina and Ecuador. AFP and Reuters reported his arrival, with the first footage showing the Brazilian politician stepping off a private jet at Opa-locka Executive Airport near Miami.
AFP footage showed Bolsonaro emerging from the aircraft with his family after its door opened. Reuters cameras also captured the family disembarking from a Gulfstream G400 jet and heading into the airport.
According to a report by NPR, uniformed security personnel escorted the family to a waiting vehicle while holding large umbrellas to shield them from journalists gathered at the scene. Bolsonaro made no statement and did not answer reporters' questions.
His arrival in the United States followed a day of widespread speculation about his whereabouts. According to flight-tracking website FlightAware, the private jet carrying Bolsonaro and his family departed Wednesday morning from Guayaquil, Ecuador, where it had stopped to refuel, and landed in Miami at approximately 9:25 a.m. local time.
Flavio Bolsonaro and his family land in Miami
(Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images North America/ AFP)
(Photo: Marta Lavandier/AP)
The journey began Tuesday evening, when Bolsonaro and his family crossed the land border from Brazil into Argentina before boarding a private plane to Ecuador. Brazilian media also revealed that Bolsonaro used his Italian passport to enter Argentina, even though Brazil's Supreme Court had ordered him to surrender all his passports, including foreign travel documents.
According to Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, his wife, Fernanda, and their two daughters presented Brazilian documents. Argentine authorities confirmed that the family entered the country with valid travel documents and that there was no legal impediment to their entry.
Trump backs Bolsonaro's arrival as tensions with Brazil rise
Bolsonaro's entry into the United States was made possible after the State Department announced that it would grant visas to him and his family. President Donald Trump, a longtime ally of the Bolsonaro family, expressed support for their arrival.
The move could further strain relations between Washington and Brasília after Lula accused the U.S. administration of cooperating with the Bolsonaro family in an effort to return it to power.
Bolsonaro is expected to break his silence Thursday and publicly address his escape for the first time.
Paulo Figueiredo, a close associate of the Bolsonaro family, announced that the politician would hold a news conference in Miami during the afternoon. According to Figueiredo, Bolsonaro is currently in a "safe location" and is "resting with his family."
Figueiredo claimed that false and contradictory reports about Bolsonaro's whereabouts had circulated in the media in recent hours, some of them attributed to officials in other countries.
Election defeat, corruption investigations and a disputed escape
The younger Bolsonaro, 45, fled Brazil just two days after losing the presidential runoff to Lula, receiving 48.21% of the vote compared with 51.79% for the incumbent left-wing president. He refused to recognize the results and alleged voting irregularities, without presenting evidence to substantiate claims that the outcome had been falsified.
Argentine President Javier Milei is accused of helping Bolsonaro flee
(Poto: Mariana Nedelcu/Reuters)
Meanwhile, Brazil's Supreme Court ordered him to surrender his passports amid ongoing investigations into suspected corruption and money laundering. He failed to comply, and authorities revoked the validity of his passport.
On Wednesday, Brazil's Supreme Court also denied reports that federal police had raided Bolsonaro's mansion in the upscale Lago Sul neighborhood of Brasília.
Despite the travel ban, no arrest warrant had been issued for Bolsonaro when he fled the country. According to Folha de S.Paulo, federal police did not monitor his movements after he left his home in Brasília.
The four family members also did not undergo federal police border checks when leaving Brazil, because Brazilian citizens are not required to complete that procedure when crossing the land border into Argentina.
As recently as Monday, after being ordered to surrender his passports, Bolsonaro declared that he had no intention of leaving Brazil and planned to defend himself against the allegations, which he denies. Now that he has arrived in the United States, it remains unclear how long he intends to stay.
His term in Brazil's Senate is expected to end in February, when he will also lose his parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
Argentina investigates possible assistance in Bolsonaro's escape
Bolsonaro's flight has also sparked controversy in Argentina, where a criminal complaint has been filed demanding an investigation into the circumstances of his passage through the country.
Lawmaker Marcela Pagano called for authorities to examine whether government officials helped Bolsonaro travel onward despite the restrictions imposed by a Brazilian court. She requested the preservation of security camera footage from the border crossing and airport, passenger manifests and documents related to the chartering of the private jet.
Former president Jair Bolsonaro also fled to the United States after losing to Lula
(Photo: Luis Nova/AP)
"The Argentine border is not anyone's VIP corridor," she declared.
Meanwhile, Argentine news website Infobae reported, citing government sources, that President Javier Milei's administration helped coordinate the operation that enabled Bolsonaro's departure. According to the report, government officials were involved in examining logistical and legal options in an effort to prevent Argentine authorities from becoming entangled in legal complications.
Following in his father's footsteps
Bolsonaro's escape echoes the actions of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who also left Brazil for the United States after losing to Lula in the 2022 presidential election and refusing to acknowledge the result. The elder Bolsonaro later returned to Brazil, where he was convicted of involvement in an attempted coup and sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Flavio's brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, already lives in the United States and said before the election that he would support his brother leaving Brazil if he lost.