Flavio Bolsonaro Leaves Brazil for US After Election Loss, State Department to Grant Family Visas

Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States following his defeat in Sunday's presidential election, according to three sources who spoke on Tuesday afternoon. A senior US State Department official said the department will issue visas to him and his family and allow them to enter the country.

Bolsonaro has not conceded to the leftist incumbent, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He departed after declining to comply with a Supreme Court order to hand over his passports. That order stems from a money laundering investigation, in which he denies any wrongdoing.

His whereabouts were not immediately clear, nor were those of his wife and two daughters. One source close to the family said he had landed in Florida but would not say where.

The move could widen the divide between the two most populous countries in the Americas. Lula has accused Washington of working with the Bolsonaro family to return them to power, and Reuters reported before the vote on a State Department campaign to restore them to office. Speaking in Brasilia, Lula said he had only just learned of the departure and called it shameful, arguing that Bolsonaro should have stayed and proved his innocence.

President Trump did not mention Bolsonaro's departure when speaking to the press on Monday, but he said the Brazilian vote "looked like another rigged election." Trump has previously claimed that Flavio's father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was a victim of judicial persecution in Brazil. The elder Bolsonaro also traveled to the United States after refusing to concede to Lula in 2022, when Joe Biden was president. He later returned and was eventually sentenced to 27 years for plotting a coup, after his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia.

Flavio Bolsonaro had been favored to win but lost in a surprise result. On Monday he was given 24 hours to surrender his passports, and two sources said they were canceled once the deadline passed. In a ruling seen by Reuters, the Supreme Court cited the risk that he would flee and his "significant financial resources." His immunity from prosecution ends when his Senate term expires in February.

On Monday he said he had no plans to leave. "I have never thought about leaving the country," he said. "I will hand over my passports and defend myself against this travesty, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me."

His exit appeared to surprise his own campaign. Senator Rogerio Marinho, his campaign manager, told reporters the team had discussed just a day earlier that Bolsonaro, given the 60 million votes he received, should take on the role of opposition leader.

Bolsonaro said on Sunday he would seek to annul the result over alleged voter irregularities, but his Liberal Party said on Monday that it acknowledged Lula's victory. How he left while facing the passport deadline remains unclear, though a senior Federal Police official said he did not use any regular border crossing. His younger brother Eduardo, who lives in the United States, told podcaster Steven Crowder this month: "If my brother does not win, I'm in favor that he would leave the country."