The Brazilian news outlets Metropoles and Jovem Pan reported on Tuesday that Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, who lost a close presidential race against incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva under dubious circumstances, fled the country after authorities attempted to confiscate his passport.
The reports followed a similar claim overnight from the Argentine news network Infobae, which initially reported that Bolsonaro, son of imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro, had flown to Argentina en route to the United States. Infobae has since issued an update that the private jet it had first reported would carry Bolsonaro appeared to have canceled its flight.
Bolsonaro lost the second round of presidential voting on Sunday to Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday and is expecting to govern for at least another four years. The election was marred by controversy after a top court justice, who previously served as Lula’s defense lawyer, issued an unprecedented decree forcibly extending voting hours from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. The order was issued after 5:00 p.m., so only polling stations that had violated orders to close at 5:00 p.m. were allowed to stay open later.
Sen. Bolsonaro had initially stated on Sunday that he would challenge the results of the election and demand a redo. On Monday, he published a video from an undisclosed location asserting that he would not challenge the election, but instead seek a “cassation,” an order deeming Lula and his vice presidential candidate, Gerald Alckmin, unfit to hold the office of the presidency. Bolsonaro also reportedly denied that he had considered leaving the country.
The senator had also denounced that Lula’s government moved to strip him of his passport hours after the election, allegedly in relation to an investigation into corruption allegations. Lula himself was convicted of misappropriating government funds to buy a luxury beachfront property while he was president in a trial in 2017, but his conviction was overturned on a technicality in 2021, allowing him to run for president again.
According to Metropoles, which cited “people close to the [Bolsonaro] family,” Bolsonaro was at press time, on Tuesday afternoon, on a flight to Florida. It claimed that Sen. Bolsonaro had allegedly gone silent among his peers, and most recently sent a message to campaign manager Rogério Marinho stating that he was “cooling [his] head.” Notably, neither the Bolsonaro camp nor the Brazilian government have confirmed this report, and previous reports on Tuesday insisted that there was no immigration record on file indicating that Sen. Bolsonaro had attempted to leave the country.
Similarly, on Tuesday afternoon local time, Jovem Pan, an online news outlet that skews right, reported that its police sources could confirm Sen. Bolsonaro’s departure from the country. Jovem Pan stated only that its sources, both police and unspecified sources close to the senator, had stated that Sen. Bolsonaro was on a flight to the United States. The outlet did not indicate that Argentina played any role in the departure, nor did Argentine authorities have any record of Sen. Bolsonaro traveling there. The outlet also shared frustration from allies of the senator who said they had attempted to contact him all morning, particularly following the initial rumors of his flight, but were unable to reach him.
“The broadcaster’s report[s] revealed that only members of the hardcore nucleus around the senator had knowledge of his movements,” Jovem Pan claimed. “A great number of his allies were taken by surprise by the news. Among the information circulating regarding Flávio was the possibility of a flight to Argentina before traveling to the United States.”
Prior to these reports, Infobae, an Argentine online news outlet, reported in the early hours of Tuesday that it had reason to believe a private aircraft, identified as a Gulfstream G400, had stopped in Puerto Iguazú, Argentina, and was allegedly preparing to carry Sen. Bolsonaro to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Infobae later reported, however, that the flight to the United States was canceled due to “the absence of one of the four passengers, according to Airport Security Police.” Both Brazilian and Argentine government officials told Infobae, reportedly, that they had no information indicating that Sen. Bolsonaro had left Brazil or entered Argentina. Online flight trackers also observed that the airplane in question did not leave Puerto Iguazú on Tuesday.
The Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported on Tuesday, similarly, the the Argentine National Immigration Directorate had denied having any record of Sen. Bolsonaro in the country. It also noted, however, that Sen. Bolsonaro had refused to hand over his passports: a regular Brazilian passport, and a diplomatic passport specially issued to senators. Some reports suggested that this led authorities to invalidate the passports, which would in theory make it impossible for Sen. Bolsonaro to use them. Allied nations such as Argentina, where President Javier Milei has yet to congratulate Lula at press time, and America, where President Donald Trump said the Brazilian election “looked rigged,” may be willing to overlook their cancellation in favor of political asylum for a persecuted opposition politician.