The Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro landed this Wednesday at Opa-locka Executive Airport in Miami, accompanied by his wife and two teenage daughters, after fleeing Brazil in defiance of a court order that prohibited him from leaving the country and required him to surrender his passports, as confirmed by Reuters and EFE.
The arrival comes just days after Bolsonaro lost the presidential runoff on Sunday against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who won with 51.79% of the votes compared to the senator's 48.21%, a difference of over 4.4 million votes.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court ordered on Monday that Bolsonaro surrender his ordinary and diplomatic passports within 24 hours and prohibited him from leaving the national territory, as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering linked to lawyer Willer Tomaz, who is accused of laundering over 1,000 million dollars.
Upon the deadline passing without the documents being submitted, the Brazilian Federal Police canceled both passports and activated a migration alert. However, Bolsonaro managed to circumvent these measures by using his Italian passport, citizenship that he obtained in 2023 and which Brazilian authorities do not have the authority to revoke.
The escape route was confirmed by Argentine migration authorities: the family crossed by land on Tuesday night through the Tancredo Neves International Bridge in the province of Misiones, with valid documentation. At 11:30 PM local time, they boarded a private flight from Puerto Iguazú Airport to Guayaquil, Ecuador. From there, a Gulfstream G400 operated by Baires Fly completed the journey to Miami, landing at 9:18 AM local time.
The government of Donald Trump actively facilitated the operation. The White House confirmed on Tuesday that the State Department would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family. "The State Department will issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and has authorized their entry into the United States," stated a spokesperson quoted by ABC correspondent David Alandete. Trump, when asked by reporters at Joint Base Andrews, was brief: "I would approve it. I think they are good people."
The arrival was broadcast live by CNN Brazil, which showed Bolsonaro descending from the plane, accompanied by an American security official. His allies had urged him not to leave Brazil or the political movement he inherited from his father, but the senator ignored that advice.
The contrast with his own words is striking: just on Monday, before news of his escape broke, Bolsonaro had declared, "I have never thought about leaving the country. I will hand over my passports and defend myself against this farce, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me."
Flávio is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced in September 2025 to 27 years and three months in prison by the Supreme Federal Court for leading an attempted coup after losing the 2022 elections. From prison, Jair appointed him as the presidential candidate for the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party officially recognized Lula's victory on Monday, although Flávio had initially refused to accept the defeat and announced that he would seek to annul the elections.
President Lula described Bolsonaro's departure from Brazil as "shameful." His arrival in Miami now raises significant questions about the political and judicial future of the senator, as well as the diplomatic consequences for relations between Brazil and the United States.
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