(AFP) – Brazil’s defeated right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro stepped out of a private plane in Florida on Wednesday morning, AFP witnessed, despite a court order banning him from leaving his country. His plane touched down at Opa-Locka Executive Airport outside Miami after flying from Argentina with a stopover in Ecuador, as speculation had swirled for days over his whereabouts.
Bolsonaro, 45, who lost a runoff election to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday, is under investigation in Brazil for alleged corruption and money laundering and, with his election loss, is set to lose parliamentary immunity. The plane — also carrying his wife and daughters — that landed in Florida had made a brief stop in Guayaquil, Ecuador in the early hours of Wednesday, AFP journalists saw.
Bolsonaro had seemed likely to be Brazil’s next president after he came out on top in the first round of elections, but Lula made a surprise surge to retain power. Bolsonaro had campaigned on a pledge to liberate his father, who is under house arrest for coup-plotting after his own electoral loss to Lula in 2022. Jair Bolsonaro — a close ally of US President Donald Trump — never conceded defeat and left the country on the eve of his rival’s inauguration, only returning to Brazil three months later.
A police source told AFP that Flavio Bolsonaro’s Brazilian and diplomatic passports had been canceled, but the senator has held Italian nationality since 2023, according to Italian documents seen by AFP. Washington has said it would grant him a US visa.
“We still don’t have any news about his whereabouts,” Bolsonaro’s campaign manager Rogerio Marinho had told reporters in Brasilia on Tuesday. “I received a text message from him this morning, where he said he would let some time pass today and then would talk with us, and that was it,” he said. “That was the only communication we had.”
Flavio Bolsonaro said in a video posted on Instagram on Monday that he “never had any intention of leaving the country” and the ban on his exit was a scare tactic. Lula, who won the election with 51.8 percent of the vote, called fleeing the country a “shameful” act. “A person who sneaks out of their country must have something to hide,” he said in Brasilia during his 81st birthday celebration on Tuesday.
Following his loss, Bolsonaro said he would seek to annul the result, citing the decision to extend polling hours over transport problems that prevented some citizens from voting. Lula and Bolsonaro had both requested the extension due to bad weather in parts of the country. Flavio’s brother Eduardo, a US-based former lawmaker, maintains close ties with the White House, while Trump has said that the elections were “rigged.”
– Yussel GONZALEZ
© 2024 AFP
