Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States after he was defeated in Sunday’s presidential election, Folha de S.Paulo and Reuters reported, citing sources close to the senator.
The Supreme Court had asked Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, to surrender his passports so he couldn’t leave the country.
There wasn’t clarity over whether Flavio Bolsonaro had complied with the order since there were differing accounts on that.
The AFP news agency cited a police official as saying that Bolsonaro’s passports had been cancelled and there was no official record of him leaving the country.
Bolsonaro’s plan is scheduled to land in the US in a few hours, Folha de S.Paulo reported.
How did Bolsonaro exit Brazil?
Argentine news outlet Infobae reported earlier today that Bolsonaro had crossed into Argentina to board a plane to the US.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Security of Argentina has denied reports that the conservative Brazilian senator had entered the country.
Brazilian media reports earlier said that the federal police were still searching for him.
Bolsonaro leaves Brazil after losing presidential election: What to know
Bolsonaro lost Brazil’s presidential election runoff on Sunday after an incredibly tight voting count through the eveninguntil his challenger, incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, surged ahead.
Bolsonaro had initially said he would seek to annul the election results, citing alleged irregularities.
But Bolsonaro’s party, Brazil’s Liberal Party, on Tuesday acknowledged the results of Sunday’s vote.
In a video on Instagram on Monday, Bolsonaro said he was served with an order to hand over his passports so he couldn’t leave the country.
The travel ban was imposed as part of a criminal investigation that identified ties between Bolsonaro and a lawyer who is accused of money laundering, news outlets reported.
The investigation is under wraps, but Bolsonaro talked about the restrictions that he faced in the video.
Bolsonaro said in the video that he received the Supreme Court order outside the home where his father, Jair Bolsonaro, was serving out a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup following his 2022 election loss to Lula.
Bolsonaro said the order was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Moraes is the same judge who sentenced his father to prison.
The 45-year-old senator said the order was based on comments made by his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who said on a podcast last week that his sibling should leave the country if he lost the election.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Bolsonaro also under criminal investigation
Flavio Bolsonaro is also subject to at least two federal investigations.
One, he is under investigation for corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion for receiving millions of dollars from a disgraced banker to finance the biopic about his father, titled “Dark Horse.”
The other stems from the federal police investigation in relation to his links with the lawyer.
Edited by: Alex Berry
