Flavio Bolsonaro ‘leaves Brazil for US with family days after losing election’
Police had ordered the Brazilian senator to hand over his passports within 24 hours
Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States just days after his election defeat, a source close to the Brazilian Senator has said.
A source told Reuters that Bolsonaro had left Brazil with his wife and two daughters, just hours after police in Brazil said they had cancelled his passports.
Police said that Bolsonaro had failed to comply with an order to surrender his passports within 24 hours as part of a probe into alleged money laundering, which he denies.
Following media reports about a private plane at Iguazu International Airport on the Argentina-Brazil border, Argentine authorities checked the aircraft and its crew, the statement added. They found no flight plan listing the Bolsonaro family.
A spokesperson for right-wing Argentine President Javier Milei, who has yet to congratulate Lula on his victory, said, "There is no asylum request," declining to give further details.
It appears that Bolsonaro could be following the footsteps of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who moved to the United States after refusing to concede losing to Lula in 2022.
The elder Bolsonaro eventually returned to Brazil but was later given a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup.
His son has yet to officially concede defeat, saying on Sunday he would seek the annulment of the result over alleged voter irregularities.
He said he would ask for the result to be annulled after a Lula-appointed Supreme Court justice extended voting by two hours over transport irregularities.
“It is impossible to recognise the election results, given the circumstances under which things unfolded,” Bolsonaro told journalists.
However, his Liberal Party said on Monday it acknowledged Lula's victory.
With 100 per cent of votes counted, 80-year-old Lula took a 51.79 per cent share of the vote against his 45-year-old rival’s 48.21 per cent. Analysts said high voter turnout may have helped Lula snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, on the eve of his 81st birthday.
Bolsonaro’s petition is undermined by the fact that his campaign also sought a voting extension due to heavy rains in the conservative-leaning south.
But his refusal to concede could nonetheless spark a wave of protests in a country where faith in the electoral system, and in judicial independence, has been strained in recent years, observers say.
More to follow...