Brazilian Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro arrived in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday after fleeing his home country, where the Trump administration quickly issued visas to him and members of his family, according to a senior State Department official. Bolsonaro departed Brazil after the government ordered his passports seized following his recent presidential campaign loss against incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Rather than surrendering his travel documents, Bolsonaro left with family members, journeying through Argentina and Ecuador before reaching the United States.
Bolsonaro expressed gratitude to Argentine President Javier Milei and President Donald Trump for assisting his departure. In social media posts on X, he initially declared himself the elected president before deleting the message and replacing it with a letter asserting he is the rightful leader of Brazil.
The senator, who is the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, remains under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court regarding allegations of money laundering, corruption, and tax evasion across two separate cases. He has not yet been formally charged with a crime. Legal experts note that if charges are eventually filed and he is convicted, Bolsonaro could face potential extradition from the United States.
His father is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting to orchestrate a coup in 2023, though the elder Bolsonaro has been serving his sentence under house arrest due to health reasons. The former president similarly traveled to Florida in December 2022 on the eve of Lula’s inauguration after losing that election.
Lula secured reelection on Oct. 25 by a margin of more than 4 million votes in the second round of an election cycle that carries significant implications for regional politics across South America. Responding to the departure outside the presidential residence in Brasilia, Lula addressed supporters directly. “I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true,” Lula said. “This act of leaving Brazil is shameful.”
