Brazil's Flavio Bolsonaro leaves Argentina for alleged US asylum after defeat
· France 24Defeated right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro boarded a flight to Ecuador after fleeing Brazil, Argentina's government said Wednesday.
Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters arrived in Argentina on Tuesday night before boarding "a private flight operated by the company Baires Fly S.A. bound for the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador," Argentina's National Directorate of Migration said on X.
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A US official confirmed to FRANCE 24 that Washington would welcome Flavio Bolsonaro, corroborating earlier reports.
"The State Department will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States," the source said.
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According to Brazilian daily Folha de São Paulo which cited sources close to the family, “the Trump administration is aware of Flavio Bolsonaro's departure for the United States and will grant asylum to the Liberal Party senator.” According to these sources, the ultra-conservative senator “is said to have travelled with his wife, Fernanda, and their two daughters.”
According to São Paulo's other major daily newspaper, O Estado, which also spoke with people close to the Bolsonaro clan, the extended family of the defeated presidential candidate did not learn of his departure until Tuesday and described his decision as “untimely”.
The Brasilia-based major daily Correio Brasiliense reported that Flavio Bolsonaro has arrived in the United States. “According to sources within the Federal Police interviewed by the Correio, this operation was reportedly coordinated by Trump administration Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” the newspaper wrote.
A few hours later, the US State Department later said it would issue visas for the Bolsonaro family. "The State Department will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States," a senior State Department official said
US President Donald Trump's administration has previously alleged that Flavio's father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, was a victim of judicial persecution in Brazil.
Flavio's departure for the United States threatens to deepen a rift between the two most populous nations in the Americas.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros to put them back in power, and Reuters reported ahead of Sunday's election on a US State Department campaign to restore them to office.
Lula reacted to Tuesday's news by calling it "shameful" for Flavio Bolsonoro to have left Brazil. He said that his rival in Sunday's presidential election should have stayed and proven his innocence.
Watch moreComeback kid: How did Brazil's veteran leader Lula upset Bolsonaro?
Bolsonaro was favoured to win Sunday's presidential election but ended up losing in a shock result to leftist Lula. On Monday, he was given 24 hours to hand in his passports as part of a money laundering probe in which he denies wrongdoing, but that deadline lapsed, two other sources said, leading to his documents being cancelled.
Read moreFlavio Bolsonaro vows to lead opposition after Brazil court imposes travel ban
Former president Jair Bolsonaro also went to the United States after refusing to concede to Lula in 2022, when former US president Joe Biden was in office. He eventually returned to Brazil but was later given a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia.
His son has yet to officially concede defeat – saying on Sunday he would seek the annulment of the result over alleged voter irregularities – but his Liberal Party said on Monday it acknowledged Lula's victory.
It remains unclear how Bolsonaro was able to leave the country while he was facing a 24-hour Supreme Court deadline to hand over his passports. A senior Brazilian Federal Police official said Bolsonaro had not exited the country via any regular migration point.
Right-wing influencer Paulo Figueiredo, who serves as a sort of unofficial spokesperson for the Bolsonaro family, declined to answer questions about Bolsonaro's whereabouts.
"After months of intense work that has been unfairly thwarted, I am not in the mood to speak to the press," he said in a message. "If I have any comments to make on any matter, I will get in touch."
Eduardo Bolsonaro, Bolsonaro's younger brother who lives in the United States, said ahead of the vote that an election loss would require a move.
"If my brother does not win, I'm in favour that he would leave the country," he told podcaster Steven Crowder this month.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters)