Brazil’s right-wing presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro has arrived in the United States and declared himself the leader of his country’s opposition in exile, alleging that the October 25 run-off was stolen from him.
The senator landed in Miami on October 28 with his wife and two daughters, according to Reuters and CNN, after the US State Department agreed to grant the family visas.
Bolsonaro, 45, had led the polls for most of the campaign and finished the run-off with 48.2 per cent of the vote against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He has refused to concede.
In a statement posted on social media after landing, Bolsonaro said it was a mathematical impossibility for Lula to have overturned the polls on election day. He pointed to a last-minute decision by the Supreme Court, taken over the head of the Superior Electoral Court, to extend voting hours after polling stations had legally closed.
The extension was granted at the request of Lula’s campaign, which cited problems with voter transport. Bolsonaro’s team had also asked for longer hours, though only in five states, including São Paulo and Minas Gerais.
Bolsonaro said he had not fled Brazil but had left for Brazil, and promised to present in the coming days a strategy to mobilise the opposition through peaceful and legal means to stop Lula consolidating what he called a dictatorial regime.
An earlier version of the statement, later deleted, described him as Brazil’s president-elect.
His departure came hours after the Federal Police cancelled his passports. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had given him 24 hours to surrender them and barred him from leaving the country, a deadline that expired at 11am on October 27.
The order was issued in an investigation into alleged money laundering through betting platforms, which Bolsonaro has described as a witch hunt orchestrated by the same judicial machinery that jailed his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, over the 2022 election. He denies wrongdoing.
Bolsonaro, who left via Argentina and Ecuador, thanked US President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei for their help, praising Milei’s courage and respect for the law.
Asked by reporters whether he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the US, Trump said: “Well, I would approve.” He added that the election had looked strange to him, though he insisted he had not taken sides.
Lula described the senator’s departure as a shameful act, Time reported. On the same day, Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino ordered police to investigate whether a US donor network co-founded by Vice President JD Vance had funded Bolsonaro’s campaign, a claim the group denies.
Their father also flew to Florida after losing the 2022 election.
