Flavio Bolsonaro departs from Brazil

US BOUND? The senator and his family had stopped in Ecuador after traveling through Argentina, while the US said that it would offer them visas if they went there

• AFP and Reuters, BUENOS AIRES

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Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, who was defeated in Brazil’s presidential election at the weekend, was on his way to Ecuador after fleeing Brazil, Argentina’s government said yesterday.

Bolsonaro, who lost the runoff election to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday, entered Argentina on Tuesday night before boarding a flight to Ecuador, the Argentine National Directorate of Migration said on X.

The 45-year-old entered Argentina “with valid travel documents and no legal impediment,” the agency said, despite a court order banning his exit.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, greet supporters at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia on Tuesday.

Photo: AFP

Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters boarded “a private flight operated by the company Baires Fly S.A. bound for the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador,” it said.

Data from the Flightradar24 Web site showed that the flight took off just after midnight yesterday from the Argentine town of Puerto Iguazu in the country’s northeast.

Baires Fly did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro attends an event during his campaign for president in Rio de Janeiro on Oct. 3.

Photo: AFP

US media citing anonymous sources had earlier reported that Bolsonaro had arrived in the US on Tuesday.

The US Department of State and US President Donald Trump said that they backed issuing visas to Bolsonaro and his family, but did not confirm their travel plans.

The Brazilian Supreme Court banned Bolsonaro from leaving the country and ordered him to hand over his passports.

He is under investigation for alleged corruption and money laundering, and with his election loss is also set to lose parliamentary immunity.

Bolsonaro has not acknowledged his electoral defeat, citing a decision by the court to extend polling hours.

Trump said that he approved of Bolsonaro entering the US.

“Well, I would approve,” Trump told reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on his return from a campaign trip to Texas, adding that he had heard Bolsonaro was in Argentina.

“I think they’re fine people,” Trump said. “The election was very strange, and I thought it was terrible. It’s gotten bad reviews. You look at what happened to their market.”

“I think it’s so terrible to see it,” he said.

“I didn’t take sides, you know. I know them both. I know Lula. I know Flavio a little bit. I know the father very well,” he said, referring to former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, whom he has previously said was a victim of judicial persecution in Brazil.

“The father was treated really badly. I thought, but I wasn’t involved,” Trump added. “That’s Brazil. It’s a different country.”