Vanessa Buschschlüter
Latin America and Caribbean editor
Image source, EPAFlávio Bolsonaro’s passports were cancelled after he failed to surrender the documents to police in the 24-hour deadline he had been allotted.
The order to hand over the passports was given by a Supreme Court justice: Alexandre de Moraes.
Moraes is investigating allegations that Bolsonaro was involved in a money laundering scheme and the decision that he should surrender the passports is part of that probe.
Such a measure is sometimes taken to prevent the person under investigation from leaving the country.
Investigators want to ensure that they have access to the person so that they can question them. It does not necessarily mean that they plan to arrest them – it means they do not want them to leave the jurisdiction where the investigation is being held.
We have little information because Moraes did not make the order public.
In fact, the order to surrender the passports only became public when Bolsonaro himself revealed it to the press on Monday.
At the time, he said he had no plans to leave, and that he would hand over the documents.
However, the deadline passed without doing so, and speculation that he had left the country has become feverish.
