In US, Flavio Bolsonaro claims he did not run from Brazil — he ‘left for Brazil’

Brazil's defeated presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro steps off a plane after arriving at Opa-Locka Executive Airport near Miami, Florida on October 28, 2026. — AFP pic

First Published: Saturday, 31 Oct 2026 10:42 AM MYT

BRASÍLIA, Oct 31 — Former conservative presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro said Friday that he fled Brazil to the United States because he was a victim of “persecution” in his country.

Bolsonaro, who lost Sunday’s election runoff to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, secretly left Brazil on Tuesday and arrived in Florida aboard a private jet on Wednesday after travelling through Argentina and Ecuador.

“The persecution began even sooner than I imagined,” the senator said during an Instagram livestream in which he discussed his decision to flee after his Brazilian passports were cancelled as part of a money laundering investigation.

In the video, he recounted how police informed him Monday that his passports were being revoked as he left a visit to his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest.

“With tears in his eyes, he told me: ‘You know where they’re going with this, don’t you?’” he said of his father.

“I told him: ‘Dad, I know... Now I know what I have to do,’” he recounted.

Although he gave no details of how he left the country, he said he and his wife made the decision “without anyone knowing” and urged people not to “point the finger at anyone.”

US President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei are under pressure to explain the involvement of the United States and Argentina in the senator’s escape.

“I didn’t leave Brazil, I left for Brazil,” Flavio Bolsonaro said, alleging that Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had made false accusations against him.

He also suggested there had been irregularities in the runoff, comparing them to “handball goals” that were not disallowed by VAR, without detailing what those irregularities might have been.

He also predicted that the economy would “go bust” under Lula and said he was willing to run for president again: “I’m not talking about 2030, I’m talking about before then.” — AFP