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Just days after losing Brazil's presidential election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, defeated challenger Flávio Bolsonaro has left Brazil for the United States, despite a court order requiring him to surrender his passport. On Wednesday (October 28), someone saw him getting off a plane in Florida, USA.
The right-wing senator, who is under investigation for alleged money laundering, has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.
The incident has attracted global attention, with experts warning the move could further complicate Brazil's relationship with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
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Who is Flavio Bolsonaro?
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Flavio Bolsonaro, 45, is a senator and the eldest son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
He has long been seen as his father's political heir, becoming the candidate of the right-wing Liberal Party in the 2026 presidential election and widely considered Lula's successor.
Opinion polls have consistently shown Bolsonaro leading or leveling with Lula in support. Bolsonaro won the first round of voting but narrowly lost to Lula in the presidential runoff on October 25.
Bolsonaro has refused to concede defeat and has instead called for the results to be annulled, arguing that extended voting hours on Election Day unfairly benefit his opponents.
Brazil's electoral authorities have confirmed Lula's victory, and Kássio Nunes Marques, president of the Supreme Electoral Court - appointed by Bolsonaro - said extending the voting period did not change the outcome.
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Bolsonaro's party has accepted the election results but said the decision to extend the voting period warranted further scrutiny.
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro is facing mounting legal challenges.
He is under investigation for suspected money laundering and other financial crimes. Authorities are also investigating allegations of illegal foreign funding and interference in his presidential campaign. He denies any wrongdoing and says the charges against him are politically motivated.
His Senate term ends in early 2027. After leaving office, he will lose the parliamentary protections that currently shield him from some forms of prosecution.
Why did he leave Brazil?
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In his first statement on Wednesday after leaving Brazil, Bolsonaro said: "I am not fleeing Brazil, I am leaving for Brazil."
"I never had any intention of leaving my country, but I knew exactly where things were going," he said.
"I left an extraordinary regime so that I could be the leader my people deserved."
He described himself as the victim of a coup and political persecution and said he traveled to the United States to protect his family. He also called himself Brazil's "president-elect" and later the country's "leader."
He thanked Argentine President Javier Milei, Trump and the American people, saying they shared the same values as the "good people" of Brazil.
On Monday (26th), Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes asked Bolsonaro to surrender his passport within 24 hours on the grounds that he was at risk of leaving the country while under investigation. As a current senator, Bolsonaro holds a diplomatic and ordinary passport.
In a court ruling seen by Reuters, the Supreme Court ordered the seizure of Bolsonaro's passport, citing his risk of fleeing Brazil and his "deep financial resources."
Bolsonaro initially denied he intended to flee.
"I never wanted to leave the country," he told reporters after his defeat.
But he missed the deadline to hand over his passport, and Brazilian authorities subsequently canceled the documents.
However, reports soon emerged that Bolsonaro may have left the country before then.
Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters crossed Brazil's land border with Argentina late Tuesday night local time and boarded a private plane bound for Guayaquil, Ecuador, according to Argentine immigration authorities.
But Ecuadorian authorities have yet to publicly confirm his arrival, and Bolsonaro himself and his representatives have not disclosed his whereabouts.
From there he is believed to have departed for the United States.
Earlier on Tuesday (27th), a senior US State Department official told the BBC that Washington would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family and allow them to enter the country if they apply.
"We let him in," Trump told reporters on Wednesday, but declined to comment on the claims in Bolsonaro's statement.
"I'm not going to get involved. It was a very strange election, that's for sure," Trump said, adding that he believed Bolsonaro "and his family were treated very unfairly."
Lula criticized Bolsonaro, saying he should have stayed in Brazil to defend the charges against him. He added: "He who has nothing to hide has nothing to fear."
The Supreme Court's decision to order Bolsonaro to hand over his passport has itself sparked controversy in Brazil.
According to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, some members of Lula's government privately expressed concerns that the move, less than 24 hours after the election results were announced, might be viewed as politically motivated by Bolsonaro's supporters and deepen polarization.
They fear it could reinforce long-held claims by Bolsonaro's camp that Brazil's judiciary is targeting the family for political reasons.
Why are the Bolsonaro family so close to Trump?
image copyright Instagram/Eduardo Bolsonaro
Flavio Bolsonaro's sudden trip to the United States has once again cast a spotlight on the Bolsonaro family's longstanding relationship with Trump.
During his tenure as president, Jair Bolsonaro developed a close relationship with Trump and was often referred to as "Tropical Trump" due to their similar political styles and rhetoric.
Trump has repeatedly supported the Bolsonaro family.
Although he did not publicly endorse Flavio Bolsonaro's presidential bid, the two met at the White House in May during the campaign.
Bolsonaro later said Trump asked about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, and discussed issues such as organized crime, tariffs and critical minerals.
After Flavio Bolsonaro's defeat, Trump questioned the legitimacy of the election results, saying it "looks like another rigged election."
He later said he would welcome Bolsonaro if he sought asylum in the United States.
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"I think it's horrible to see. You know, I'm not taking sides. I know both of them. I know Lula. I know a thing or two about Flavio. I know his father very well. I think his father was treated very badly, but I had no part in that. That's Brazil, a different country," he added.
After losing to Lula in 2022, Jair Bolsonaro also went to the United States instead of immediately admitting defeat.
He later returned to Brazil and was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia. He is currently under house arrest.
Flavio's younger brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, moved to the United States in March 2025 after becoming the subject of an investigation by Brazil's Supreme Court. Eduardo said he was a victim of political persecution and settled in Texas, where he became one of the Bolsonaro family's leading spokesmen in Washington.
While in the United States, he campaigned for his father and brother, established contacts with people close to Trump, and lobbied American politicians on issues involving Brazil.
In December 2025, he lost his seat in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies due to his long stay abroad.
In June, Brazil's Supreme Court found Eduardo guilty of seeking U.S. intervention during his father's coup trial last year, but he refused to accept the ruling.
Before this year's election, Eduardo said that if his brother lost the election, he should leave the country.
"If my brother doesn't win, I'm in favor of him leaving the country," he said in an interview with conservative commentator Steven Crowder in the United States.
What does this mean for Brazil’s relationship with the United States?
The incident comes at a sensitive time in relations between the two largest countries in the Americas.
Relations between Brazil and the United States have become increasingly tense, with Lula accusing the Trump administration of interfering in Brazil's elections.
Trump's comments questioning the legitimacy of the election, coupled with Washington's willingness to grant visas to Bolsonaro and his family, could further escalate tensions.
Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank, predicts that relations between Brazil and the United States will remain "very tense" and that Brazil will continue to promote diplomacy while forming a "regional resistance" to Trump.
But she believes next month's U.S. midterm elections could increase pressure on the White House.
"If the Democrats win, it will not be easy for Trump to continue to fight Brazil," she told the BBC.
This article was originally written in English. We used artificial intelligence to assist in translation and was reviewed by BBC journalists before publication. Learn more about how we use artificial intelligence.
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