Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Ilya Maximov
[Regnum] Flávio Bolsonaro's defeat in Brazil's presidential election resulted not in a escalation of political tensions, but in his hasty departure from the country. The senator, who had promised the day before to remain with his voters and lead the opposition, secretly crossed the border and flew to the United States.
On Sunday, October 25, Lula da Silva won the presidential race with 51.79% of the votes cast to his opponent's 48.21%. The gap amounted to more than 4.4 million votes, despite the first round results and opinion polls pointing to the senator's advantage.
On Monday, Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the cancellation of the former candidate's passports, including his diplomatic one, and gave him 24 hours to surrender them, citing the risk of flight and the suspect's considerable financial resources. The reason for the cancellation was a money laundering investigation in which he was suspected of involvement.
Bolsonaro quickly responded to this decision with a video message addressed to his supporters: "I never considered leaving the country. I will surrender my passports and defend myself against this travesty, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me."
However, by 11 a.m. Tuesday, he had still not handed over the documents, so his passports were revoked and the police began searching for him. But this did not stop the politician from carrying out his plans.
Argentine publication Infobae initially reported that he had crossed the border and intended to depart from Puerto Iguazú on a private jet. Later, on Wednesday night, Argentina's immigration service confirmed that the senator, his wife, and two daughters had entered the country with valid documents and without legal impediments, after which they flew to Ecuador, and from there, to Miami.
A key detail was Bolsonaro's Italian citizenship since 2023. Brazilian authorities could not revoke an Italian passport, so, as Congresso em Foco reports, the fugitive could have used it to cross the border.
According to another version, there was no need to resort to using a foreign document, as Brazilians only need an ID card to enter Mercosur countries, which include Brazil and Argentina, allowing them to circumvent the passport cancellation restrictions. In any case, just a couple of days after the results were announced, the candidate who promised to protect the interests of his voters found himself in Miami.
Washington's reaction was immediate. The US State Department confirmed it would issue visas to him and his family and allow them to remain in the country. Donald Trump, responding to questions from reporters, also supported the idea of accepting the fugitive and his family into the United States, stating, " Well, I would approve. I think they're good people."
However, this decision also found its critics. Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro pointed out on social media: "Election defeat is not grounds for asylum. Yet, the Trump administration is providing Flavio Bolsonaro safe haven in the United States... The Trump administration should provide Congress with evidence of its assistance to Bolsonaro in fleeing Brazil in violation of Brazilian law."
Although the information about the escape being orchestrated by the US has not been officially confirmed, several sources directly point to the State Department's involvement. "As I reported a few hours ago, Flavio Bolsonaro has arrived safely in the US. The brains behind this operation are US Secretary of State Marco Rubio," former Mexican Tourism Minister Simon Levy, considered a supporter of the American president, told Congresso em Foco.
The main reason for his flight is believed to be two investigations into the senator. The first concerns an alleged hidden stake in a betting business and money laundering through lawyer Willer Tomaz, who, according to police, siphoned off approximately R$5 billion (approximately US$1 billion) through bets in 2025.
The second is related to the funding of a film about the politician's father, disgraced former President Jair Bolsonaro (nicknamed "Trump of the Tropics"), who is serving a prison sentence for plotting a military coup. According to investigators, part of the money may have gone to support his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in the United States.
The reason was likely not so much the investigations themselves, but rather the imminent loss of his protected status. Flávio's term in the Senate expires on January 31, 2027, after which he will lose his parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
It was the aforementioned brother of the fugitive who first proposed the idea of leaving Brazil. Even before the election, he openly declared: "If my brother doesn't win, I'm for him to leave the country." He reportedly met his relative in Miami and is believed to have facilitated his flight.
These suspicions have sparked speculation about a family tradition of evading justice, as the senator's departure fits neatly into the broader pattern of Bolsonaro family misdeeds.
His father also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential race, but soon returned to lead the opposition. As a result, in September 2025, he was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup and is currently serving his sentence under house arrest.
Eduardo's younger brother fled to the United States in March 2025 to avoid arrest. In June 2026, the Brazilian Supreme Court sentenced him in absentia to four years and two months in prison for obstruction of justice: he lobbied the Trump administration to impose tariffs on the country and individual sanctions against judges to prevent his father's conviction.
Thus, Flávio's actions fit into the logic of Bolsonaro's well-established clan strategy, in which leaving abroad is used to shirk responsibility and consider future actions, coordinating them with the United States. Naturally, this does not enhance the family's popularity among their compatriots.
President-elect Lula da Silva reacted harshly to the news of his rival's defection, describing it as a "shameful act." "He who has nothing to hide fears nothing," he remarked.
He said he could have stayed and proven his innocence in court instead of seeking asylum abroad. He compared the situation to his own experience: in 2018, he submitted his documents and faced justice, but his opponent was afraid to do so.
Family ties also came under fire. "That's what the Bolsonaro family is like. Brazil is their second home. Their first is bootlicking the US, and he's already gotten used to it," the Brazilian leader said.
Presidential Secretary of State Guilherme Boulos called the former presidential candidate's decision "one of the most shameful episodes in Brazilian history." He said he "betrayed the country and the voters."
Ordinary citizens share a similar opinion. "This is cowardice. He didn't stick to his tough stance as he promised, and now that he's actually lost the election, he has no way to escape responsibility for what he did and said. The only way out he's found is to flee, hide in the United States, and go unpunished for everything he did," a Rio de Janeiro resident told Reuters.
One of the respondents expressed hope that Flávio's other relatives would follow him. "Well, I hope the rest of the family follows him and everyone leaves Brazil so we can free ourselves from the far right. And then we can have a civilized right again, just as we already have a civilized left," he said.
Bolsonaro's departure was no less of a surprise for his supporters. His campaign manager, Senator Rogerio Marinho, admitted: "We are surprised by the news, because just yesterday we were discussing the need for Flávio—given the 60 million votes he received—to assume the role of opposition leader."
No one in the candidate's inner circle was informed of his plans. "We knew nothing about it," the fugitive's lawyer admitted to the BBC.
The politician's defection creates a vacuum on the right. He received over 48% of the vote, but chose to flee abroad rather than work domestically. His political career now depends solely on Washington, although his ability to lead the Miami opposition appears highly doubtful.
Despite their habit of fleeing at the first sign of danger, the Bolsonaro clan has not disappeared from politics. In October 2026, Michelle Bolsonaro, the wife of the convicted former president, was elected senator for the Federal District.
Her political capital is built entirely on her husband's legacy and the ideology of "Bolsonarism." This means it's too early to write off the entire family, and the strugglefor influence within the Brazilian right will continue with her participation.
… and respect for the law, and President Trump and the wonderful American people for welcoming me. This is a land of freedoms and of brothers and sisters who share the same values as the good people of my country. President Trump is a great defender of freedom of expression.
On Sunday night, I watched in disbelief as electoral fraud unfolded before my eyes. The illegitimate and illegal actions of Lula’s former lawyer allowed a mathematical impossibility to become reality, with Lula gaining more than 10 million votes between the first and second rounds. A ruling by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), overriding the jurisdiction of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), extended voting at the very last moment, and the order only arrived after the legal closing time, when the polls had already closed. Voters were subjected to different rules. So far, the TSE has confined itself to defending the extension of voting hours, without providing even a single credible answer. And these grounds for invalidation are not the only problem. Throughout the campaign, there was abuse of political and economic power, as well as the use of government resources to favor reelection. These are serious acts, expressly prohibited by law, that justify disqualifying the Lula–Alckmin ticket.
The regime’s response to my challenge came swiftly. As though following a previously devised plan, seven minutes after this repugnant electoral fraud, the judge—who is implicated in a massive corruption scandal, directly named in the investigation he used to try to confiscate my passports, and who would very likely be in prison had they not prevented me from taking office—set the regime’s machinery of political persecution in motion. Given that he was legally barred from the outset and entirely lacking in impartiality to initiate any judicial proceedings against me, his mere participation in procedural acts demonstrates the scale of the arbitrariness and illegality now underway.
It was not my intention to leave my homeland, but I know exactly where this is heading. This is the classic playbook of any coup d’état. The political persecution that began with my father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, and spread to thousands of other ordinary, patriotic Brazilians and even American citizens has a single objective: to silence anyone who disagrees with the authoritarian regime established in Brazil through a Supreme Court captured by the Workers’ Party’s criminal organization.
To be clear, there is no arrest warrant against me, because I have committed no crime. What exists is a politically motivated witch hunt intended to hold me hostage and use me as a tool of blackmail to protect corrupt Supreme Court justices from impeachment. Here is the persecution’s script: passport confiscation, an electronic ankle monitor, censorship, house arrest, a sham trial, and, finally, a politically motivated conviction.
I will not subject my family to this, and my country does not deserve to endure this international disgrace again. Faced with the political weaponization of Brazil’s justice system, I brought my family to the United States, where we are safe. Once again, I thank President Trump and the American government for welcoming us and providing the legal protections we no longer have in Brazil.
I want to make this clear: I did not flee Brazil; I left for Brazil’s sake. I left an authoritarian regime so that I could be the leader my people deserve, because silenced, imprisoned, and censored, as my father is, I could not provide that leadership, and we would be left with the institutional theater of an emasculated opposition controlled by a Supreme Court filled with the regime’s servants.
I am not the first person who has had to fight for his own country from abroad. Rui Barbosa went into exile for confronting Floriano Peixoto’s arbitrary rule, and from there continued defending the law and freedom. Charles de Gaulle led Free France from London, sentenced to death by the Vichy regime, and returned to liberate his country. José Martí organized the struggle for Cuban independence from New York. In Venezuela, Juan Guaidó and Edmundo González had to leave the country for confronting the Chavista dictatorship, and María Corina Machado, despite being persecuted, refused to legitimize the fraud and became a global symbol of democratic resistance. All of them were treated as criminals by the regimes they confronted. History called them something else.
This is only the beginning of our struggle for democracy, human rights, and freedom in Brazil. I want to tell not only my 60 million voters, but the Brazilian people, that I am the leader, and that the criminals who stole Brazil’s election are part of a criminal organization that has imposed a tyranny. You wanted change, and I will not abandon you. I will be our nation’s voice and its free leadership.
To Brazil’s institutions, I make this appeal: this madness must end. Brazil today is engulfed in legal chaos, corruption, and political persecution, in which the opposition is afraid to speak and a former president’s family is treated as an enemy of the state. No nation can live in peace or prosper this way. There is still time to restore the balance among the branches of government and give Brazilians back the confidence they have lost.
To the international community, I ask: do not normalize what is happening in Brazil. What is happening in my country today is not normal and cannot be treated as normal.
To the senators, representatives, and governors whom I helped elect, and especially to my candidate for president of the Senate, Rogério Marinho: I know that today you lack the freedom necessary to carry out your political duties fully. Therefore, I will lead the opposition from here. I will say what you cannot say there, and I will take the risks you cannot take.
And to you, who voted for me and dream of change: we are not defeated, and we are not alone. This is only the beginning of our struggle for democracy, human rights, and freedom in Brazil. In the coming days, I will address the Brazilian people regularly, and we will present a strategy to mobilize the opposition and the immense popular support we have, through every peaceful and legitimate means, to prevent Lula from consolidating a dictatorial regime in Brazil. I ask each of you to stand firm and never give up.
I left Brazil, but I have not abandoned the Brazilian people. This struggle did not end on October 25. It will end only when Brazil becomes a free country again. And that day will come.
May God bless Brazil.
Then there’s this, the next step in the sequence:
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