Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro lands in Miami under police escort after defying an order to surrender his passports
Flávio Bolsonaro, son of jailed ex-president Jair, abandoned his demand for annulment of the result by Monday, pledging instead to lead the opposition.Flávio Bolsonaro routed his escape flight through Guayaquil, Ecuador, to avoid Brazilian airspace after the Supreme Court cancelled his passports for ignoring a deadline to surrender them.
Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, Brazil's defeated right-wing presidential candidate, departed via Argentina and Ecuador before touching down at Miami's Opa-locka executive airport on Wednesday. Reporters were kept at bay as he was hurried away under police escort, his face obscured by black umbrellas, without making any statement. The Trump administration had issued visas to him, his wife Fernanda and their two daughters, and President Trump told reporters he "approves" of the family's arrival in the US, describing them as "fine people." Brazil's Supreme Court had ordered Bolsonaro to surrender his passports within 24 hours as part of a money laundering probe; when that deadline passed without compliance, the documents were cancelled — but Bolsonaro had already slipped into Argentina on Tuesday night across the Tancredo Neves International Bridge and boarded a private Gulfstream IV jet.
Trump described Brazil's election as "very strange" and "terrible" while stopping short of formally endorsing Bolsonaro's bid.
Bolsonaro's father, Jair, is currently serving a prison sentence in Brazil for plotting a coup after losing the 2026 election to Lula.
Lula called Bolsonaro's flight "shameful", saying he could have stayed in Brazil to answer the corruption allegations against him.
