Brazil's Flavio Bolsonaro flees to US after election loss

BRASILIA: Defeated right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro has left Brazil and is travelling to the United States despite a court order barring him from leaving the country, US media reported on Tuesday.

The son of jailed former leader Jair Bolsonaro lost Sunday's election to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and refused to concede defeat.

The right-wing senator said on Monday that a Supreme Court justice had ordered him to surrender his passports. Bolsonaro is under investigation for alleged corruption and money laundering and, following his election loss, is also set to lose his parliamentary immunity.

The 45-year-old was heading to Florida, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing an anonymous official source. Other US media outlets confirmed he was heading to the country.

The US State Department said on Tuesday that it would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family, without confirming his travel plans.

A police source told AFP that the senator's Brazilian and diplomatic passports had been cancelled, adding that "there is no formal record of Flavio Bolsonaro leaving the country".

But he has held Italian nationality since 2023, according to an Italian parliamentary document seen by AFP.

Bolsonaro's campaign manager, Rogerio Marinho, expressed shock over reports that the defeated candidate had fled Brazil.

"We still don't have any news about his whereabouts," he told reporters in Brasilia on Tuesday.

"I received a text message from him this morning, where he said he would let some time pass today and then would talk with us, and that was it," Marinho said.

"That was the only communication we had."

Scare tactic

Flavio Bolsonaro said on Monday that the ban on his leaving Brazil amounted to a scare tactic.

"I never had any intention of leaving the country. I will surrender my passports and defend myself against this travesty," he said in a video posted on Instagram.

US President Donald Trump, a close ally of Jair Bolsonaro, said on Monday that Brazil's election was "rigged" following the defeat of Bolsonaro junior.

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Flavio's brother Eduardo, a US-based former lawmaker, maintains close ties with the White House.

Last week, he told a US podcast that Flavio Bolsonaro should leave Brazil in the event of electoral defeat, given the active investigations into his activities.

In his statement on Monday, Lula's challenger also said he would lead the opposition to the leftist government.

Following Lula's victory with 51.8 per cent of the vote, Bolsonaro said he would seek to annul the result, citing the decision to extend polling hours over transport difficulties that prevented some citizens from voting.

Lula had requested the extension, as had Bolsonaro, because of bad weather in parts of the country.

In his father's footsteps

All bets were on a Bolsonaro victory after he came out on top in the first round of voting earlier this month.

He campaigned on a pledge to free his father, who is under house arrest over a coup plot following his own electoral loss to Lula in 2022.

Jair Bolsonaro never conceded defeat and left the country on the eve of his rival's inauguration, returning to Brazil three months later.

Separately, on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ordered police to investigate alleged foreign funding of Flavio Bolsonaro's campaign and other forms of interference from abroad, including social media "manipulation".

Lula's campaign complained of interference in the election by Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, alleging "algorithmic manipulation".

Meta denies taking any action to favour either side in the election, but previously said some of Lula's campaign advertisements had been mistakenly deactivated because of technical errors.