Bolsonaro flies to Miami after passport seizure order
Right-wing politician Flávio Bolsonaro has left Brazil following his election defeat to President Lula da Silva and has described himself as the country's leader.
Flávio Bolsonaro, senator and son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, has declared himself the leader of Brazil after his defeat in the presidential election. After arriving in Florida on Wednesday, he published an open letter on X in which he stated that he is the leader of the country and that those responsible had stolen the election. He spoke of a "criminal organization" that had established a "tyranny." According to the news agency Reuters, the post was initially published in a form in which Bolsonaro referred to himself as the "elected president." This wording was later deleted and replaced with the self-description as "leader."
The departure was triggered by an order from Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. On Monday, less than a day after Lula's election victory, he ordered the seizure of Bolsonaro's passports and prohibited him from leaving the country. Bolsonaro initially stated that he would comply with the order, but then decided to leave. According to the portal MD+, the Federal Police filed the request only seven minutes after the Superior Electoral Court confirmed Lula's victory. Bolsonaro's supporters accuse de Moraes of being a close ally of Lula.
According to Argentina's migration authority, the Bolsonaro family entered Argentina with valid travel documents. They then traveled to Ecuador, from where, according to Time Magazine, they flew on to Florida by private plane. Bolsonaro landed at Opa Locka Executive Airport north of Miami on Wednesday morning. US President Donald Trump had previously granted him and his family visas. Asked whether he approved of the entry, Trump said he did, adding: "I think they are fine people." At the same time, he described the election as "very strange" and said it was "like another rigged election," emphasizing that he had not taken sides.
Bolsonaro himself rejected the accusation that he had fled. He said he left Brazil to protect himself and his family and to avoid a witch hunt conducted by Lula and the Supreme Court. "I want to make it clear: I did not flee from Brazil," he said. "I left Brazil, but I did not leave the Brazilian people." Lula, by contrast, called the decision "a shameful act" and recalled his own arrest on corruption charges in 2018. According to Bolsonaro, the departure resulted from a social media post by his brother Eduardo, who had written that Flávio should leave the country if he lost the election.
Flávio Bolsonaro faces several criminal investigations, including over alleged money laundering, corruption and tax evasion, the newspaper Folha de São Paulo reported. In addition, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Federal Police to open an investigation into alleged illegal foreign financing of Bolsonaro's presidential campaign. The focus is on the Rockbridge Network, a conservative donor group co-founded by today's US Vice President JD Vance, among others.
The election also had economic consequences. The São Paulo stock exchange plunged on Monday after Lula's victory: the benchmark Ibovespa index closed nearly 14 percent lower on the first trading day after the election. The Brazilian real lost nearly eleven percent of its value against the US dollar, one of its sharpest declines ever. Lula's victory margin was 3.58 percentage points. The offices of Flávio Bolsonaro, President Lula da Silva, President Trump and Vice President Vance initially did not respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital about the allegations.
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