Flávio Bolsonaro will make his first in-person public appearance in the United States this Thursday by participating as the keynote speaker at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held at the Mar-a-Lago club, the private residence of President Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, as confirmed by the agency EFE.
The reappearance occurs just over a week after the Brazilian senator left Brazil, three days after losing the second round of the presidential elections on October 25 to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The CPAC gala as an international platform
The event, taking place from November 4 to 7 at Mar-a-Lago, brings together figures from international and American conservatism.
Among the other confirmed speakers are Senators Rick Scott and Mike Lee, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, actor Jim Caviezel, and Eduardo Bolsonaro, brother of Flávio.
Participation in CPAC aligns with Bolsonaro's strategy to internationalize his political discourse.
The senator announced that he will grant interviews to major Brazilian and international media outlets to say, in his own words, "what no one can say while remaining in the country."
The defeat that led him to exile
Lula received 51.79% of the valid votes compared to 48.21% for Bolsonaro, a difference of more than 4,430,000 ballots, according to the Superior Electoral Court of Brazil.
The victory was particularly remarkable because Lula had come in second in the first round on October 4, with 45.16% compared to Bolsonaro's 47.03%, becoming the first candidate since Brazil's redemocratization to overcome a first-round defeat to win the runoff.
Bolsonaro refused to acknowledge the results and questioned the legitimacy of the elections without presenting any evidence.
His own campaign coordinator, Rogério Marinho, acknowledged on October 30 that there was no evidence of irregularities.
The Escape from Brazil
The magistrate Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court ordered on October 26 that Bolsonaro return his passports within 24 hours and prohibited him from leaving the country as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering linked to lawyer Willer Tomaz, who is suspected of having laundered over 1,000 million dollars.
Bolsonaro did not comply with the order and crossed the land border with Argentina using his Italian passport —obtained in 2023— which Brazilian authorities could not revoke.
From Puerto Iguazú, he boarded a private plane that stopped in Guayaquil, Ecuador, before landing on October 28 at the executive airport of Opa-locka, in Miami, alongside his wife and two teenage daughters.
The proclamation from Miami
Upon arriving in the United States, Bolsonaro published a letter in which he proclaimed himself "the true elected president of Brazil", denounced an alleged electoral fraud without providing evidence, and announced that he would lead an "opposition in exile."
Subsequently, he corrected and replaced the term "president-elect" with "leader of Brazil."
"I did not flee from Brazil; I left through Brazil," he wrote in the letter, in which he also stated, "I will lead the opposition from here. I will say what you cannot say over there, and I will take the risks that you cannot take."
In the letter, she expressed her gratitude to Trump and the Argentine president Javier Milei, and compared her situation to that of historical figures who acted from exile, including José Martí, Charles de Gaulle, and María Corina Machado.
Trump's support and Washington's position
The Trump administration facilitated Bolsonaro's entry into the United States. Trump stated that he would "approve" it because he considered them "good people" and claimed that he was welcome to stay "as long as he wishes," although he dismissed the idea of a bilateral meeting for the time being.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied that Washington had organized or facilitated Brazil's exit, arguing that Bolsonaro already had a visa and that the only decision made by the Trump administration was to authorize his entry.
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