Flavio Bolsonaro lands in US, declares himself 'leader' of Brazil

Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami, in the US state of Florida, on Wednesday morning. 

His plan to leave Brazil became public knowledge late on Tuesday, soon after he had refused to concede defeat in Sunday's presidential elections and pledged to challenge the results. 

Bolsonaro refused to comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court order to surrender his passports, tied to a money-laundering investigation in which he denies wrongdoing, and the US State Department later said it would grant him and his family visas. 

Bolsonaro declares himself president-elect of Brazil despite losing election

Hours after arriving in the US, Bolsonaro declared himself the rightful president-elect of Brazil and said he had left the country so he could be the leader "my people deserve."

He later altered a message to call himself the "leader" of Brazil rather than "president-elect."

He said that his victory had been denied by an electoral coup d'etat by ‌leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the country's Supreme Court.

The right-wing senator said he would lead the opposition from the US.

"I want to say, not only to my 60 ‌million voters but to the Brazilian people, that ‌I ​am the elected president and that the criminals who stole Brazil's election are part of a criminal organization that has established a ​tyranny," he said in an open letter shared with journalists by his allies.

Bolsonaro did not provide evidence for ⁠the ​alleged electoral fraud. International observers have ​found Sunday's voting was fair. 

Flavio Bolsonaro flees to the US from Brazil

When did Bolsonaro arrive and how did he reach Miami?

Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters were seen disembarking a Gulfstream G400 plane and heading into the Miami-Opa Locka airport on Wednesday morning. 

Their journey across the Americas had captured regional attention. 

The quartet first flew into Argentina late on Tuesday, then took a private jet to the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil. From there, they continued to Miami, in Florida.

Bolsonaro would lose his immunity from prosecution in February when his term in the Senate ends. On Monday, he had said in an Instagram post that he had no intention of leaving the country and that he would "hand over my passports and defend myself against this travesty, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me." 

According to the AFP news agency, Bolsonaro also holds Italian citizenship and so was able to travel despite his Brazilian and diplomatic passports being canceled.

Potential source of strain between Trump's US and Lula's Brazil

Bolsonaro's departure and his arrival in Florida — like his father Jair Bolsonaro before him after Brazil's previous presidential elections — could deepen a rift between the two most populous countries in the Americas. 

During the election campaign, incumbent president Lula had accused the Donald Trump administration of colluding with the Bolsonaro family in a bid to help them return to power. 

After the election results, Trump appeared to question the integrity of the vote, saying he thought the extension to voting times was a "very bad look." He had also alleged in the past that Jair Bolsonaro was the victim of judicial persecution in Brazil.

Bolsonaro senior is now in jail in Brazil on charges of leading a conspiracy designed to keep him in power despite defeat in 2022's presidential election.  

Brazil's Lula celebrates election victory as Bolsonaro rejects results

Edited by: Alex Berry

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