U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio on Saturday pushed back against reports that the Trump administration helped facilitate the departure of defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro to the United States.
Bolsonaro fled Brazil days after losing a runoff election to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Recent reports in major newspapers alleged that White House communications aide Jason Miller arranged the private jet that transported Bolsonaro to Miami.
Speaking to reporters during the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Rubio directly rejected those claims. “We didn’t facilitate anything,” Rubio said. “We were not involved in any of the arrangements he made in terms of leaving.”
Rubio clarified that Bolsonaro possessed a valid visa and that President Donald Trump’s sole involvement was granting permission for Bolsonaro to enter the country upon arrival. “The president made clear that if he arrived in the United States at a port of entry, that he would be paroled into the country, and he was,” Rubio explained.
Bolsonaro landed in Miami on Wednesday. His departure from Brazil occurred despite a Supreme Federal Court order barring him from traveling abroad and requiring him to surrender his passports. He is currently under investigation on suspicion of money laundering and illegal foreign currency transactions.
To leave Brazil, Bolsonaro and his family traveled across the land border into Argentina, continued onward to Ecuador, and subsequently boarded a flight to the United States. He has refused to acknowledge the election outcome, alleging without evidence that the vote was fraudulent.
Flávio Bolsonaro’s father, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, likewise refused to concede his defeat to Lula in the preceding election cycle. The elder Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence stemming from an attempted coup.
