Flávio Bolsonaro recorded a selfie video on Monday afternoon to thank supporters of his bid for the Brazilian presidency, which he lost the previous evening. He complained how the police intimidated him – telling him to surrender his passport just “7 minutes” after the election result was announced as part of an ongoing corruption investigation in a money-laundering scheme worth about US$905 million involving betting companies.
“I never thought about leaving the country. Nobody will silence me” – he claimed, insisting he would surrender his passport. On the same Monday, Bolsonaro also pledged on to lead the opposition against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the veteran leftwinger who defied the opinion polls to a victory. Yet, less than 24 hours after losing Brazil’s presidential election, Bolsonaro appeared to have vanished.
After pulling away from his home in Brasília on Monday evening, a convoy of four dark cars split in different directions, leaving journalists and authorities scrambling to determine which one carried Bolsonaro. On Tuesday, the conservative senator and his family headed to the Argentine border, hundreds of miles away seeking refuge on American soil.
That night, at 10:50 p.m. local time, Bolsonaro, his wife and their two daughters crossed the Tancredo Neves International Bridge into Puerto Iguazú, Argentina, near where the borders of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet. After crossing the border, Bolsonaro’s vehicle was escorted by Argentina’s airport security police to the immigration checkpoint at Iguazú Falls International Airport.
The operation was being monitored from Puerto Iguazú by Santiago Caputo, a top Milei aide, according to a former Argentine intelligence chief. Caputo was in direct contact with Eduardo Bolsonaro to coordinate, according to a person involved in the operation. At the airport, a private jet owned by Baires Fly, a charter airline, was waiting for the Bolsonaro family after the plane arrived from Buenos Aires a day earlier.
At 11:30 p.m., Bolsonaro boarded the Gulfstream – flight LV-JQW – which flew to Guayaquil, Ecuador, to refuel on its way to the U.S. The flight then departed shortly after midnight, and the flight manifest reviewed by The Wall Street Journal lists Bolsonaro, traveling on an Italian passport, alongside his wife and two daughters. The jet landed at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport at around 9:30 Wednesday morning.
He has claimed not only to be the victim of political persecution, but to have been the real winner of an election that was stolen from him. Shortly after arriving in Miami, Bolsonaro said he was the victim of a “politically motivated witch-hunt”. He also claimed that the result of the election had been manipulated. “I did not flee Brazil. I left for the sake of Brazil,” – he said.
But newly re-elected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has criticised Bolsonaro’s shameful act of fleeing the country, saying “those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear”. Bolsonaro’s arrival in Florida ended days of confusion over his whereabouts, after he was reported to have travelled to Argentina, and then prematurely reported to have already entered the U.S. on Tuesday.
As Brazilian and international outlets reported that Bolsonaro had left the country, he was still in Brazil, while a private jet waited for him across the border in Argentina. At 12:21 a.m. Wednesday, the Gulfstream G400 took off from Puerto Iguazú and whisked him to Ecuador and then Miami, where his entry was facilitated by Trump allies his family spent years cultivating.
The getaway – which relied heavily on deception and decoys – sparked a global guessing game that left even some of Bolsonaro’s closest allies in Washington and Brazil in the dark about his whereabouts. After Bolsonaro stepped off the plane in Miami on Wednesday morning wearing a navy polo shirt and a backpack, uniformed officers used umbrellas to shield him and his family from cameras.
Their arrival followed an extraordinary effort by a small circle of influential Trump allies, senior U.S. officials and Argentine President Javier Milei to help him fly to the U.S. and secure entry, despite a Brazilian court order barring Bolsonaro from leaving the country. Bolsonaro thanked President Trump for welcoming him to a “land of freedoms” and Milei for his “courage” and “sense of justice”.
After Trump personally approved admitting Bolsonaro and his family to the U.S. on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved to issue them visas. But the family entered the country under humanitarian parole, which allows them to remain for one year. Argentina’s government confirmed that Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters had crossed the border into Argentina and boarded a private flight to Ecuador, at 11.30pm on Tuesday night.
The operation to whisk Bolsonaro out of Brazil to the U.S. began on Monday, as allies grew concerned that he could face arrest. Although the criminal investigations into Bolsonaro predated the election, the Supreme Court order barring him from leaving Brazil and requiring him to surrender his passports came shortly after his defeat and fueled accusations that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was determined to punish his political rival.
Working with Flávio Bolsonaro’s well-connected younger brother Eduardo, a small group including Trump adviser Jason Miller secured a charter jet to take him from Argentina to Florida. The Trump administration’s decision to provide refuge to Bolsonaro marks the culmination of the family’s yearslong lobbying campaign to enlist the U.S. president and his inner circle in its legal and political battles at home.
The personal alliance between the two most powerful political families in the hemisphere has reshaped relations between the U.S. and Brazil. Last year, Trump imposed steep tariffs on the country citing its treatment of Bolsonaro and sanctioned the same Supreme Court justice who barred Bolsonaro from leaving Brazil.
Now, what began as a domestic political and legal battle in Brazil is becoming a test of how far Trump is willing to wield American power on behalf of a foreign political dynasty – with potentially far-reaching consequences for the second-largest democracy in the Americas.
Bolsonaro intends to set up a political operation in exile from the U.S. But with the U.S. midterm elections days away, the White House has given little indication that it intends to go beyond offering Bolsonaro refuge or that Trump will expend political capital challenging da Silva’s re-election victory, despite pressure from allies in Washington.
Trump declined to comment when reporters asked him about Bolsonaro declaring himself the rightful president of Brazil. “I thought they were treated very unfairly,” – he said on Wednesday about the Bolsonaros, who he described as “very fine people” earlier in the day. “But I won’t get involved – it was a very strange election, that’s for sure.”
Da Silva’s victory in Sunday’s runoff election against Bolsonaro was recognized by more than 50 countries, including Latin American leaders across the political spectrum. He defeated Bolsonaro by more than 4.4 million votes, a margin that international observers said left no doubt about the integrity of the country’s electoral data. Trump, however, has so far refused to formally recognize da Silva’s victory, instead suggesting that the results might have been rigged.
Bolsonaro’s arrival in the U.S. follows in his father’s footsteps. In December 2022, Jair Bolsonaro landed at Orlando International Airport after losing an election to da Silva and refusing to concede. The elder Bolsonaro stayed for around three months, living at the home of a friend before returning to Brazil. He was later convicted of plotting a coup to stay in power, which culminated in an uprising in Brasília that drew comparisons to the Capitol riots of January 2021.
Flávio’s brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, meanwhile, has been living in Texas after taking leave from Brazil’s Congress. While in the U.S., he lobbied officials there in an attempt to influence the coup trial of his father, which led to the U.S. imposing punitive tariffs on Brazil and sanctions on key officials. Eduardo was convicted in absentia over this by Brazil’s highest court earlier this year.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
- More Than Just Trade Deals – Canada And Brazil Levies Show Trump’s Abusing Tariffs As Political Weapon
- Learning Soviet’s Failures – How Xi Jinping Spent Decades Preparing For A Cold War Today With The U.S.
- China Too Strong For U.S. – Why Europe In Trouble As Trump Shifts Target To Bully EU With 50% Tariff Threats
- Art Of War vs. Art Of Deal – China Laughs All The Way To The Bank As Trump Slashes Tariffs From 145% To 30%
- Trump Has Already Lost His Trade War Against China – But He Can’t Find Ways To Climb Down And Save Face
- White House Privately Begging Xi To Call Trump First – But China Slapped 125% Tariff Instead
- Beijing Raises Tariffs To 125% – American Goods No Longer Marketable In China
- Recession 2025 – Why You Should Prepare For A Historic Crash As Massive Correction Builds
- “Black Myth: Wukong” Makes $600 Million In 3 Days – But The West Is Very Pissed, Accused The Chinese Game Lack Diversity
- From Terminating Trade Deal To Cancelling $1.1 Trillion Debt Owed To China – Here’re Some Of Trump’s Crazy & Dirty Ideas
- Watch Out Trump!! – China May Weaponize “Rare Earth” To Retaliate Against U.S.’ Ban On Huawei
|
|
October 29th, 2026 by financetwitter
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Comments
Add your comment now.
Leave a Reply