Bolsonaro claims he is Brazil's true leader after fleeing to US

SAO PAULO: Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, who arrived in the United States on Wednesday, has declared himself the rightful leader of Brazil, alleging an electoral coup d'état had been carried out by the country's Supreme Court and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who won the presidential election by more than four million votes.

Bolsonaro, who lost Sunday's election and left Brazil for Miami, where he and his family received US visas, thanked Argentine leader Javier Milei and US President Donald Trump for helping him leave his country and welcoming him.

In an initial open letter posted on X, Bolsonaro declared himself "the elected president". He then deleted that version and replaced it with another letter in which he said he was the rightful "leader" of Brazil.

"I want to say, not only to my 60 million voters but to the Brazilian people, that I am the leader and that the criminals who stole Brazil's election are part of a criminal organisation that has established a tyranny," he said in the updated version.

Asked by reporters at Joint Base Andrews about Bolsonaro's comments, Trump declined to comment, reiterating his earlier view that it was "a very strange election".

Bolsonaro's comments pose a problem for Washington as it seeks to navigate a rift with Latin America's largest country, which is home to the world's second-largest reserves of rare earths.

Lula has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaro family to help return them to power. Ahead of Sunday's election, Reuters reported on a US State Department campaign to restore the Bolsonaros to office.

Washington has denied trying to interfere in Brazil's domestic affairs. Trump has previously alleged that Flavio's father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, was a victim of judicial persecution.

Jair Bolsonaro travelled to the United States after refusing to concede defeat to Lula in 2022. He eventually returned to Brazil but was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia.

There was no immediate response from the State Department.

Neither Lula's office, the federal electoral court nor the Supreme Court immediately responded to requests for comment.

Lula, who was himself jailed on corruption charges that were later overturned, said this week that it was "shameful" Bolsonaro had not stayed in Brazil to prove his innocence.

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No proof

Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday, leaving Brazil after he refused to comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court order to surrender his passports. He left under a shroud of secrecy following the court order, which relates to a money-laundering investigation in which he denies wrongdoing.

Bolsonaro, who had been widely expected to win Sunday's election but suffered a shock defeat, did not provide evidence for his allegations of electoral fraud. International observers have found Sunday's vote fair.

Bolsonaro based his rejection of the result on the fact that a Lula-appointed Supreme Court justice had extended voting by two hours on Sunday following allegations by Lula's campaign of voter suppression in left-leaning northeastern states.

However, Bolsonaro's campaign also sought an extension because of rain in conservative southern states.

Bolsonaro lost to Lula by around 4.5 million votes. Fewer than 35,000 votes, or about 0.03 per cent of the total, were cast during the extra two hours of voting ordered by the Supreme Court, according to an analysis by Insper professor Pedro Burgos.

The scale of Bolsonaro's loss to Lula — more than twice his father's losing margin — and the fact that his campaign also requested an extension because of rain in the conservative-leaning south make any annulment of the election unlikely, analysts said.

In his letter, Bolsonaro denied fleeing Brazil, saying he had left to protect himself and his family and avoid becoming the victim of a witch hunt he accused Lula and the Brazilian Supreme Court of carrying out.

"I want to make this clear: I did not flee Brazil," he said. "I left Brazil, but I did not abandon the Brazilian people."