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Flávio Bolsonaro Lands in Miami After Fleeing Brazil
Confirmed
In Short: Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and his family have landed in Miami, Florida, after he lost the presidential election to incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and his family have landed in Miami, Florida, after he lost the presidential election to incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The 45-year-old senator was seen disembarking a jet at Opa-Locka Executive Airport outside Miami.
According to a police source, Bolsonaro's Brazilian and diplomatic passports had been canceled, but he has held Italian nationality since 2023, as confirmed by Italian documents seen by AFP.
The plane carrying Bolsonaro, his wife, and daughters made a brief stop in Guayaquil, Ecuador, before landing in Florida.
Bolsonaro's departure from Brazil came after 48 hours of refusing to concede defeat to Lula. He had campaigned on a pledge to liberate his father, who is under house arrest for coup-plotting following the 2022 election loss.
Lula, who won the election with 51.8 percent of the vote, called Bolsonaro's act of fleeing the country 'shameful.' He suggested that Bolsonaro's actions reflect a pattern within the Bolsonaro family, stating, 'Brazil is their second homeland. Their first homeland is licking the boots of the US.'
The United States government has granted entry visas to Bolsonaro and his family, despite a Brazilian Supreme Court order to surrender their passports.
Bolsonaro's refusal to comply with the Brazilian Supreme Court order and his subsequent flight to the United States have drawn criticism from Lula and other world leaders.
The senator's decision to flee Brazil also comes amid an ongoing criminal investigation into a possible money-laundering scheme involving betting companies, for which Bolsonaro was told to surrender his passport.
Bolsonaro's actions have raised questions about the political climate in Brazil and the implications for his father's case, as well as the broader political dynamics within the country.
While Lula celebrated his victory and the support of world leaders, including those from both sides of the political divide, former US President Donald Trump expressed skepticism about the election's integrity, saying it 'looked terrible to me.'
What's confirmed
- "A person who sneaks out of their country must have something to hide," he said in Brasilia during his 81st birthday celebration on Tuesday.
- Jair Bolsonaro -- a close ally of US President Donald Trump -- never conceded defeat and left the country on the eve of his rival's inauguration, only returning to Brazil three months later.
- Bolsonaro and his family have been granted entry visas by the United States government after he refused to comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court order to surrender his passports.
- Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro and his family have landed in Miami, Florida, after the candidate lost Sunday’s presidential election to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
- In a circuitous journey, Bolsonaro left for Argentina on Tuesday with his wife and two daughters, then traveled to Ecuador, according to Argentina officials and flight data.
- The stunning move comes after 48 hours in which Bolsonaro refused to concede to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
- Flavio Bolsonaro speaks after the presidential runoff in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Oct.
- Flávio Bolsonaro arrives at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Wednesday, Oct.
What's still developing
- Argentina's migration authority said Bolsonaro, his wife Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and his daughters Carolina Figueira Bolsonaro and Luiza Figueira Bolsonaro crossed into the country at 10:50 p.m.
- Before they landed in Florida, Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, told dozens of supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia that he didn't have precise information about Bolsonaro’s whereabouts, but said he had left Brazil.
- Earlier, a senior State Department official told CBS News that Bolsonaro and his family would receive U.S. visas.
- “The plane is in flight,” Metrópoles reported, without making clear where it had departed from.
- A report by the news outlet Metrópoles, citing sources close to Flávio Bolsonaro's family, indicates that he is expected to land in Florida on Tuesday afternoon and intends to seek political asylum.
- FILE - A street vendor sells campaign flags of presidential candidates Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro and current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 29, 2026.
- Flávio Bolsonaro pledges to end illegal deforestation by 2029 but has not detailed how.
- Analysis by Felipe Nunes of pollster Quaest suggests that many Brazilians who initially intended to support less prominent right-wing candidates voted for Bolsonaro on Sunday, hoping to propel him to a first-round victory.
- Mr Bolsonaro was speaking the day after an impassioned speech from teenage Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, who accused world leaders of betraying young people in favour of what she described as "fairy tales of eternal economic growth". The Brazilian president defended his government's treatment of indigenous people, saying many backed his policies. "Some people both inside and outside Brazil... have insisted on treating and keeping our Indians as though they were real cave men," he said.
- “We are close to achieving the tipping point,” forest governance advisor Artur Monteiro, founder of advisory platform Makaxera, told Earth.Org.
- Another area of concern is the so-called “ Marco Temporal ” – a legal doctrine whereby Brazil would only recognize Indigenous lands if the Indigenous community controlled that land in 1988, when Brazil’s constitution was promulgated.