Defeated Brazilian candidate Flávio Bolsonaro arrives in US after passports cancelled

Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro has arrived in the United States, hours after Brazilian police cancelled his passports, according to sources cited by the BBC.

The 45-year-old senator, who lost Sunday’s run-off to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has already met his younger brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, in Florida, BBC sources said. His exact route out of Brazil remains unclear.

A senior US State Department official told the BBC that the department “will issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States”.

Bolsonaro faces investigations into alleged money laundering and other matters. He has not been charged and has denied the allegations.

Missed deadline and cancelled passports

On Monday, 26 October 2026, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro to hand his passports to police within 24 hours and barred him from leaving the country.

The deadline passed on Tuesday morning without the documents being surrendered. Brazilian police subsequently cancelled the passports.

According to BBC Latin America and Caribbean editor Vanessa Buschschlüter, the order was not made public and only came to light when Bolsonaro disclosed it himself on Monday.

The BBC noted that such measures are typically used to keep a person under investigation within the jurisdiction for questioning, and do not necessarily signal an intention to arrest them.

In a video posted on Instagram on Monday afternoon, Bolsonaro said federal police officers had stopped him outside the Brasília home of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, and ordered him to hand over his passports.

“I never thought about leaving the country,” he said. “I will hand over my passports and defend myself against this aberration.” He described the order as an attempt to intimidate him.

He said the measure was based on a statement by Eduardo on 23 October that he should leave Brazil if he lost. He added that he would stay to lead the opposition to Lula.

Reports of the departure

On Tuesday, the Brazilian news website Metrópoles, citing people close to the family, reported that Bolsonaro’s plane was in flight to the US, without specifying its point of departure.

Allies told Metrópoles that he would land in Florida that afternoon and planned to request political asylum. The website added that the Trump administration had been informed.

Allies also told the newspaper Folha de S Paulo that the departure had been arranged with the help of a lawyer close to the family. CNN Brasil reported that he left with his wife, Fernanda, and their two daughters in the early hours.

According to The Guardian, Bolsonaro has held Italian citizenship since 2023 and reportedly holds a passport from that country.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers told BBC Brasil they were “completely in the dark”. One lawyer said: “We knew nothing about this, and we still have no information about what happened.”

His campaign chief, Senator Rogério Marinho, said he was surprised, as they had discussed the senator leading the opposition with the backing of his 60 million voters.

Asked whether Bolsonaro could lead the opposition from abroad, Marinho cited María Corina Machado, who did so in relation to Venezuela.

Questions over the Argentina route

The Argentine news website Infobae reported that Bolsonaro had travelled to Argentina on Monday night, intending to board a private jet in Puerto Iguazú bound for the US, but that the plane did not take off.

The Argentine channel Todo Noticias reported that he crossed the border on foot and abandoned plans to board the aircraft once news of his movements leaked.

With no record of him passing through a regular Brazilian immigration checkpoint, Brazil’s Federal Police contacted Argentine authorities on Tuesday morning to establish whether he had entered the country.

The government of President Javier Milei, an ally of the Bolsonaro family, informed Brasília that there was no record of the senator’s official entry through an immigration checkpoint.

Argentina’s National Directorate of Migration said officials inspected a private aircraft at Puerto Iguazú, belonging to charter company Baires Fly with tail number LV-JQW, and its documents.

The directorate said it “verified that there was no flight plan that included the Bolsonaro family”.

Lula calls departure ‘shameful’

Speaking at an event marking his 81st birthday in Brasília on Tuesday, Lula said: “Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear.”

He said he, too, had lost elections but had stayed in Brazil. “I keep imagining the guilt on the conscience of a citizen who has just lost the elections and flees his country,” he added.

Lula said Bolsonaro could have stayed to prove that the accusations against him were untrue. He recalled surrendering his own passport when ordered to by a court in 2018, and said Bolsonaro “should have done the same”.

“Brazil is his second homeland, his first is being a bootlicker for the US,” Lula said.

The Guardian reported that lawmakers from Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) have asked the Supreme Court to order Bolsonaro’s arrest and to place his name on Interpol’s Red Notice list.

Whether he can be considered a fugitive

Criminal law experts consulted by BBC Brasil said Bolsonaro could only be considered a fugitive if a preventive detention order had been issued against him.

“What Flávio faces is a ban on leaving the country – enforced by the requirement to surrender his passports,” said Prof Gustavo Badaró of the University of São Paulo (USP).

Prof Badaró added that the non-compliance could lead to his preventive detention being requested and ordered by Justice de Moraes, in which case he could be considered a fugitive.

Prof Davi Tangerino of Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) agreed. “For now, all he has done is fail to comply with a precautionary measure,” he said.

Failing to comply with the order may, however, constitute disobedience under Article 330 of Brazil’s Penal Code, punishable by 15 days to six months’ detention and a fine.

The investigations

Bolsonaro is the subject of two investigations before the Supreme Federal Court (STF), according to the BBC. He denies wrongdoing in both.

One concerns possible irregularities in the transfer of nearly US$70 million from the private bank Banco Master to Dark Horse, a biopic of Jair Bolsonaro.

The other concerns alleged money laundering. The Guardian reported that police are examining possible involvement in a scheme worth about £680 million (US$905 million) involving betting companies.

The BBC reported that the inquiry focuses on digital payment platforms and the betting sector in Rio de Janeiro under former Governor Cláudio Castro, a Bolsonaro ally who is also a target.

A related line of inquiry involves alleged links to a lawyer accused of laundering more than US$1 billion through a fraud scheme. Police said this month that Bolsonaro had access to bank accounts of a company owned by the lawyer.

Bolsonaro has denied doing business with the lawyer. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court also ordered police to examine his campaign over alleged foreign funding. NPR reported that the allegations against him include tax evasion.

Bolsonaro is due to lose his parliamentary immunity on 31 January 2027, when his eight-year Senate term ends.

Election result and refusal to concede

Lula won 51.79 per cent of the vote, approximately 64.2 million votes, against Bolsonaro’s 48.21 per cent, or nearly 59.8 million, according to official results cited by NPR.

Bolsonaro had won the first round on 4 October. Lula became the first presidential candidate to overturn a first-round loss and win the second round.

Bolsonaro has called the result “impossible” and demanded its annulment, objecting to a two-hour extension of polling that he called a “dirty trick”, although both campaigns had requested it.

His Liberal Party (PL) has accepted the result, while saying the extension “merits investigation”.

His running mate, Congressman Alfredo Gaspar, wrote on X that he offered his solidarity to Bolsonaro, his wife and their two daughters “in light of the relentless persecution” suffered by the senator.

President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that the election was “rigged”, without offering evidence, NPR reported. At a rally in Texas on Tuesday, he said: “I didn’t take sides, but it didn’t look very good.”

Family background

Flávio Bolsonaro, a trained lawyer, has served as a senator since 2019. He met Trump at the White House in May, presenting himself as a loyal ally.

Jair Bolsonaro is under house arrest, serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup after losing the 2022 election. After that defeat, he spent three months in Florida.

Eduardo Bolsonaro relocated to the US in 2025. According to The Guardian, he faces an outstanding arrest warrant after being sentenced to four years for trying to interfere in his father’s trial by lobbying Trump for sanctions on the justices.

Reuters reported that Eduardo told podcaster Steven Crowder this month: “If my brother does not win, I’m in favour that he would leave the country.”

Prof Magna Inácio of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) told The Guardian that voters’ resistance to the “more extremist camp” signalled that leadership of the right was “now up for grabs”.

Political scientist Camila Rocha said there was “a tendency for power to move away from the sons”, noting pre-election polls favouring Senator-elect Michelle Bolsonaro and São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas.