Flavio Bolsonaro Lands in Miami With a US Visa Days After Losing Brazil's Runoff to Lula
The defeated candidate left Brazil through Argentina and Ecuador despite a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports, and says he will lead the opposition from the United States.
Thursday, October 29, 2026/2 min read
Three days after losing Brazil's presidential runoff, Flavio Bolsonaro was on a private jet touching down in Florida. He, his wife and their two daughters landed at Opa-locka Executive Airport near Miami at about 9:30 on Wednesday morning, Al Jazeera reported, a trip that took them through Argentina and Ecuador first.
The family entered Argentina late on Tuesday, Argentine authorities said, then boarded a Baires Fly plane bound for Guayaquil. From Ecuador the aircraft flew on to Miami. The US State Department had issued the family visas.
Who won Brazil's runoff election?
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva did, on 25 October. With every vote counted, the electoral court reported an unassailable lead of nearly 4.4 million votes, PBS NewsHour reported. Lula is nearly 81 and begins a fourth, non-consecutive term on 5 January 2027.
It was not a smooth evening. A Supreme Court justice, Cristiano Zanin, extended voting by two hours three minutes before polls were due to close, after requests from both campaigns citing bus problems in Sao Paulo and Salvador and heavy rain in the south. That decision may prompt legal action by Bolsonaro's side, PBS said. We covered the first round earlier this month, when Bolsonaro finished ahead.
Why did Flavio Bolsonaro leave Brazil?
The legal backdrop to the trip is plain. According to Al Jazeera, the Supreme Court ordered him to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports after the election, in connection with embezzlement and money laundering investigations. He gave up his Senate seat to run for president, so the immunity he had as a senator ends in January.
Bolsonaro describes the allegations as a politically motivated witch-hunt. He called himself the true elected president of Brazil and claimed, without evidence, that the election was fraudulent. He thanked Donald Trump and said he would lead the opposition from the United States, asking the international community not to normalise what is happening in Brazil.
Trump, for his part, called the Bolsonaro family "fine people."
Could the US send him back?
The two countries have an extradition treaty, but Al Jazeera's correspondent noted that issuing the visas suggests Washington will not be in a hurry to return him. There is a precedent in the family. His father, the former president Jair Bolsonaro, made a similar trip to Florida after losing his 2022 re-election bid, later returned to Brazil, and is now under house arrest.
What happens next depends on three things: whether Brazilian prosecutors ask for his return, how Washington answers, and whether Bolsonaro's challenge to the runoff reaches the courts before Lula takes office. Brazil's Supreme Court, which has already ruled on the passports and the voting extension, will probably be at the centre of all three.
Published in The Outspoken Digest
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