Flávio Bolsonaro arrives in US after losing Brazil's presidential race, as US says it will grant visas

Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, defeated in the presidential runoff by incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has landed near Miami with his family, BBC News reported. His departure followed an order from Brazil's highest court requiring him to give up his passports in connection with a money-laundering inquiry.

The US State Department told the BBC that visas would be issued to Bolsonaro and his relatives. A senior department official, speaking anonymously to the Associated Press in reporting published by PBS NewsHour, gave the same assurance but at that point would not say whether the senator had already left Brazil.

The AP reported that the sealed order was signed Sunday and delivered to Bolsonaro on Monday, with a noon Tuesday deadline to turn in both his regular and diplomatic passports. Whether he did so remained unclear, the AP said. In a social media video, Bolsonaro said leaving had never crossed his mind and added: "I will hand over my passports and I will defend myself from this aberration."

The BBC noted that Bolsonaro faces no charges and rejects the accusations. According to the AP, the court is examining him in two separate cases over alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. In the first, investigators allege a betting firm was used to clean money taken through improper deductions from retirees' pensions. In the second, he is accused of receiving millions of dollars from a banker. Bolsonaro contends that Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees one of the probes, is a Lula ally.

The AP said Lula won more than 64 million votes against under 60 million for Bolsonaro, a gap of roughly 4.4 million. Bolsonaro has refused to concede, has alleged fraud without backing it up, and has petitioned the electoral court to void the outcome. Certification is scheduled for Dec. 18.

Addressing supporters in Brasília, Lula confirmed that his rival had gone abroad. "A fellow that secretly leaves his country, that's because he is liable for something," Lula said, according to the AP.

Campaign manager Rogério Marinho told the AP that his only contact had been a text in which Bolsonaro said he wanted a break. Argentina's security ministry rejected reports that the senator had crossed into that country.

The family has strong US connections, the AP noted. Brother Eduardo, a Texas resident, had encouraged him to go abroad if defeated; a Brazilian court found Eduardo guilty in June, in his absence, of unlawfully lobbying the Trump administration. Their father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is confined at home while serving 27 years for a coup attempt after losing to Lula in 2022, a defeat after which he stayed in Florida for three months.

On Monday, President Donald Trump implied without evidence that the vote had been "rigged," the AP reported. When Bolsonaro's Senate mandate ends on Jan. 31, 2027, so will his right to be judged directly by the Supreme Court.

Compiled by True News from reporting by BBC News and PBS NewsHour. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/544