Flávio Bolsonaro lands in Miami after leaving Brazil
The defeated presidential candidate and his family traveled through Argentina and Ecuador to reach Florida.
By Gabriela Ivanov ·
Flávio Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday morning, ending a rapid journey out of Brazil after the senator refused to concede the presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He stepped off the plane at approximately 9:30 a.m. EDT, wearing a dark polo shirt and accompanied by his wife, Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and their two daughters, Carolina and Luiza.
The family departed Brazil on Tuesday. Argentina’s migration authority reported they crossed the Tancredo Neves International Bridge into Misiones province at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday with valid travel documents. Within an hour of that crossing, they boarded a private charter aircraft. Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 indicates the plane landed in Guayaquil, Ecuador, at roughly 4 a.m. local time before taking off again for Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport.
Bolsonaro, 45, had been ordered by Brazil’s Supreme Court to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports by noon Tuesday. It remained unclear if he complied, though a Brazilian diplomat told the Associated Press that the senator used an Italian passport to enter Argentina. Because he did not use Brazilian exit checkpoints, no formal records of his departure exist in the country. The federal police did not monitor his exit from his home in Brasilia because a warrant for his arrest had not yet been issued.
Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, addressed supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia before the family landed in Florida. He called the act of leaving the country shameful, stating that Bolsonaro could have stayed to prove the accusations against him were false. Trump, who visited Bolsonaro at the White House in May, said early Wednesday that he approved of the move. The U.S. president described the Brazilian senator and his family as fine people and labeled the election results strange.
Bolsonaro faces investigations for corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion. One probe alleges he used a sports betting company to wash fraudulent deductions from government pensions. A separate case accuses him of accepting millions of dollars from a banker. His eight-year term as a senator expires on Jan. 31, 2027. Paulo Figueiredo, a close ally living in the U.S., said in a statement that Bolsonaro is well, in security, and resting with his family. The Trump administration granted the group U.S. visas a day before their arrival.
